


one step at a time

by annalyia



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, M/M, Mild Language, Mutual Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), and a little angst too I guess, broganes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-02-01 19:40:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 34,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12711621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annalyia/pseuds/annalyia
Summary: Pidge decides to host a D&D session for her brother and their friends.  Keith tries to be friends with Lance again but somehow feelings get involvedtl;dr: I like my D&D with a side of mutual pining





	1. Chapter 1

Lance steps back and stares at his wall.  He’s finally finished hanging up his posters.  He grins, pleased with his work.  He made sure to pack only the best of his collection from home; a good mix of sea turtles and dolphins, along with a few for video games and movies he enjoys. 

Nervously, he runs his hand over his sheets again, smoothing out all of the nonexistent wrinkles, considering he’d already done it eight times before.  “It’s gonna be okay, Lance,” he murmurs to himself.  He fidgets again, taking a deep breath before turning to open his door.

To his surprise, it swings towards him before he has a chance to touch the knob.  His mother is standing in the doorway, a soft and sad smile on her face.  “We’ve finished unpacking everything in the kitchen, _mijo_ ,” she tells him.  “It’s time we were on our way.”

Lance blinks away the tears that well in his eyes.  Sure, he’s in his sophomore year of college, so this isn’t the first time he’s had to say goodbye to his family, but that doesn’t make it any easier.  “I’m gonna miss you, _mam_ _á_ ,” he says, pulling her in for a hug. 

“I will miss you, too,” she says, returning her son’s embrace warmly, as any mother would.  “Now, come!  You must say goodbye to the others.”

Which, of course, he does.  Lance would never miss an opportunity to hug his younger siblings (his older sister was already moved in to her dorm at a different school).  He grabs all three of them in his arms and squeezes tightly.  Isa giggles and squirms, trying to escape her big brother.  Mari wraps her arms around him and hugs him back.  Miguel just kinda takes it.

“Have fun, okay?” Lance says.  “Don’t miss me too much.”

“If we’ve managed without Sel for this long, we’ll be fine without you,” Miguel says.

Lance scowls.  “All right, if that’s your attitude then you’d better get out of my apartment, kid.”  Lance turns his attention back to his sisters.  “At least these two will miss me.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course we will, Lance,” Mari says.  “Don’t worry.”

After many hugs and kisses, Lance’s family is out the door, leaving him with his roommate and best friend, Hunk.  Hunk had moved in a few days earlier.

“You good there, buddy?” Hunk asks, laying a hand on Lance’s shoulder.  “I know that saying goodbye is always rough.”

“What?” Lance turns around, a bright smile on his face.  “Nah, I’m fine, don’t worry.”

“Okay good because Pidge and Matt invited us over for dinner tonight.”

“They did?”

“Yeah, she texted me the other day.  She and Matt have been here for a few weeks because Matt’s grad school classes started before our undergrad ones.”

“Cool, cool,” Lance replies. 

“You don’t sound too enthusiastic?”

“Huh?  Oh, I’m just, uh, a little distracted.”  He huffs out a short laugh, already feeling the dull ache of missing his family. 

“Y’know, I bet Keith’ll be there.”

Lance does his best not to choke on air.  Keith?

No, please, God, not Keith.

“Oh, really?” Lance asks, trying to be as absolutely nonchalant as possible. 

Hunk gives Lance a sympathetic look.  “You don’t have to sound so excited.”

Lance’s shoulders slump as he deflates.  “He’s gonna be awkward, just like always.”

“Dude, I’m sure it’ll be fine.  Besides, didn’t you say that things were better between you two?”

Lance pooches his lips to the side, trying to figure out the best way to explain the situation to Hunk.  Sure, technically, things were better, but that didn’t mean much. 

It didn’t mean that Keith no longer hated Lance’s guts.

Shrugging, Lance answers, “yeah, I guess.  But he probably won’t be super pumped to see me.”

“Yeah well, we all live in the same building, so he’s gonna have to get used to seeing you.”

Lance’s scowl from earlier returns.  “Once again, I guess.”  He throws his hands in the air dramatically.  “He hasn’t spoken to me since the, uh, accident in lab.  Sure, we were still partners for the rest of the semester, but he managed to do all of our experiments with as little interaction as possible.”

“I-I know it’s probably not gonna help, but I’m sure that the summer gave him plenty of time to calm down.”

“I’m sure it did,” Lance parrots.  “Well, I guess we’ll find out at dinner.”

\--

At approximately six o’clock, Lance knocks on the door to Matt and Pidge’s apartment.  The door opens to reveal Pidge, a wide grin on her face.  “Hi, guys!” she says excitedly.  “C’mon inside, everybody else is already here.”

Everybody else?  Lance frowns; he was hoping that they would beat the others.

Hunk and Lance follow Pidge into the apartment, taking in the setting.  It’s pretty simply decorated, just some family pictures and a few of the blueprints for things that Pidge has designed.  Matt is in the small kitchen, grumbling at the pots on the stove. 

In the living room (which is separated from the kitchen by a peninsula), are the rest of the dinner party guests. 

Allura, her long hair pulled back for once, is sitting in an arm chair, laughing at something that Shiro said.  Her eyes glimmer with admiration as she watches her boyfriend. 

Shiro is lounging on the couch, teasing Matt.

And, unfortunately for Lance, Shiro is not alone on the couch.

At the other end is his younger brother Keith.  His mood visibly deflates once he notices Lance, and he stops participating in the conversation, shoulders hunched and brow dark. 

“Hey, you guys!” Lance says happily, causing the others to give him their attention.

“Lance!” Allura hops up from her chair and rushes across the room to embrace him. 

Lance returns her hug with a laugh.  He still can’t help how flustered he gets around Allura.  “You didn’t need to get up for me,” he says. 

“Ah, but I did anyways,” the med student replies.  She turns to Shiro and Keith with a, “are you two going to say anything to Hunk and Lance?”

“It’s good to see you guys,” Shiro says, standing.  He extends his hand and Lance shakes it, the cool metal of Shiro’s prosthetic against his skin. 

Shiro nudges Keith’s foot with his own.  “Hey,” Keith says, glancing up at the others for a brief moment.

“Just sit wherever,” Pidge says.  “I’m gonna go see if Matt needs any more help.  He’s not exactly known for being the best cook.”  She winks.

There’s a little bit of small talk as Hunk sits on the couch (between Shiro and Keith), and Lance plops down on the floor in front of the fireplace.  Allura talks about her rotations for med school, Shiro talks about the labs he’s working with, and they both manage to coax a little bit out of Keith about which hospital he’s hoping to intern at this semester. 

“Hey, guys, it’s ready!” Pidge calls from the kitchen, bringing the little conversation to an end. 

The inhabitants of the living room scramble from their seats, the promise of fried rice more enticing than continued interactions. 

After everyone has bowls full of food, they return to the living room.  Pidge turns on the TV, leaving on some show as background noise while the friends catch up. 

Lance tells everyone about spending two months of the entire summer in Cuba with his extended family – cousins, aunts, uncles, and both sets of grandparents. 

The others complain that their summers were not nearly as interesting. 

Allura gazes at Keith and Shiro disapprovingly.  “Good to know that the two of you didn’t find visiting my family in London interesting.”

“That’s not what we meant, Allura, and you know it,” Shiro says with a grin before pressing a chaste kiss to his girlfriend’s cheek.  “Keith and I had a great time, right?”  He stares expectantly at his younger brother.

“Yeah, it was really nice of your family to host us for so long,” Keith says. 

Shiro continues staring at him, eyebrows raised.

“…and, uh, I had a lot of fun sightseeing and hanging out at your favorite places,” Keith adds.

“Have you spoken anymore to that boy you met while we were there?” Allura asks, her curiosity genuine.

Keith splutters, and Lance notices how red his face gets.  “We, uh…no, not really.  We, uh, both decided not to pursue anything too serious since there’s an ocean in between us.”  His blush darkens.

Lance frowns.  A boy?

Keith and a boy?

With swift glances at his friends, Lance comes to the conclusion that he is the only person in the room who didn’t know that Keith likes boys. 

Awkward.

“Aww, Keith had a boyfriend,” Pidge teases, but there’s no real malice in her voice and her shit-eating grin reveals her real intentions.

“Shut up,” Keith retorts hotly.  “We weren’t boyfriends.”

“Really?  The two of you did seem to spend a lot of time together, and—” Allura begins, but she is cut off by Shiro gently squeezing her hand.

“Yes, really,” Keith replies, his mood obviously not as good as it was earlier (which isn’t saying much, but still).  “Can we…talk about something else?”

Much to Lance’s surprise, Keith meets his eyes, a silent plea.

Well, he is right that Lance can talk about anything and everything at any moment ever.

“Is everybody excited for classes to start?” Lance asks, effectively turning the attention of the room to himself.  He watches Keith deflate, all the tension in his muscles leaking out as he leaves the spotlight.  “I know that I am – I’m finally out of most of my weed-out classes.  Those sucked dicks.”

From there, the conversation picks back up.  Allura, Matt, and Shiro refuse to hear any complaints from the younger kids because they “don’t understand what _real_ school is like” since they’re all still in undergrad. 

Lance sneaks a peek at Keith again, and finds the other boy already staring at him.  Keith mouths a “thank you” before engaging in the conversation again.

“Oh!” Pidge says loudly, calling attention to herself.  “There’s something I wanted to ask everyone.”

They all stare at her expectantly.

“All of you know that Matt and I have been listening to a D&D podcast, right?”  After a pause, she adds, “D&D stands for Dungeons and Dragons.”

Her friends all start nodding and murmuring affirmations.

“Well, I was wondering if we could play a campaign together.”  Pidge’s smile is small and optimistic.  “I’ve already come up with one, and I don’t mind being the DM – Dungeon Master – while the rest of you play.”

“I dunno, Pidge,” Lance drawls.  “That sounds like it’s for nerds.”

“Shut the fuck up, Lance,” Pidge replies without looking at him.  “I don’t need your negativity.”  She instead looks hopefully at her other friends.

It’s hard to say no to Pidge – she really knows how to turn up the charm with her big, brown eyes. 

“Please?”

Allura is the first to cave.  “Of course, Pidge,” she says.  “It sounds like a good way for all of us to spend some time together.”

After that, everyone else agrees to play. 

“Awesome!” Pidge exclaims, clearly pleased that her friends are willing to go along with her idea.  “Okay, so, you’re each going to need to come up with your own character.  There should probably be a healer, a fighter, and a rogue because those are important classes for any campaign, but other than that play who you want.”

“I’ll be the healer,” Matt offers.  “Since I know more about the game than the rest of you, I’ve, uh, already made up my character in the hopes that you guys would say yes.”  He grins, excited.  “I’ve come up with this dwarf cleric named Baldrouc Ironfeet—”

“You can tell them about Baldrouc later, Matt,” Pidge chastises, impatient to get everyone involved.  “We should probably help them figure out who they want to play first.”

“I think Keith should play the rogue because they’re, like, always wearing black and sneaking up on people,” Lance suggests, smirking.

“Don’t type cast me,” Keith says.  After some deliberation, he adds, “but playing a rogue would be fun.”

“I’ll be the fighter,” Hunk says.  “I don’t mind being the support.”

“A fighter isn’t exactly a support character, Hunk,” Pidge says.  Hopping up from her chair, she runs to her bedroom, returning with a couple books and some papers in her hands.  “Here’s a couple copies of the player’s handbooks.”  She hands one to Keith and another to Hunk.  “We’re playing 5e, so these are the books you’re gonna want.”  She then passes a paper to everyone else.  “That’s your character sheet,” she explains.  “All of you will start at level one, and the books will tell you how and what to fill out those sheets.  Any questions?”

“Yeah, when do you want to start?”  Shiro asks.

Pidge shrugs.  “Probably after classes have started up for us and we’ve gotten into the swing of the semester?  I know you, Allura, and Matt will be pretty busy with all your internships and rotations, so the rest of us can pretty easily plan our sessions around the three of you.”

“That sounds perfect,” Allura says.  “So, should we go ahead and start planning our characters?”

“Yeah!” Pidge says, her excitement returning in earnest.  “Each of you needs to have a name, some sort of backstory, and your sheet fully filled out.  Also, if you want, your characters can have known each other before the campaign starts.  But no bullshit,” she says.  “Make it believable, nothing about people being secret princes or princesses or gods fallen to the mortal plane.”

The others nod.

“You can use the rest of the night here to roll up some characters, but I suggest doing some research first,” Pidge concludes.

The others quickly pull out their phones, searching various things like “good d&d characters” and “d&d classes” to perfect their personas. 

After some searching, Lance says, “I’m gonna play a bard.”

“Why a bard?” Pidge asks. 

He shrugs.  “They seem pretty cool.  Besides, this gives me an excuse to dazzle all of you with my _wonderful_ singing voice.”  He flashes a stunning grin. 

“The way you said that makes it seem like you’re tone deaf,” Keith notes.

“It’s actually the opposite,” Hunk says, inserting himself into the conversation.  “Trust me, Lance is a really good singer.  He just doesn’t get the opportunity to show off that much.”

Lance blushes.  So much for the element of surprise.  “Anyways, they have some pretty cool abilities according to this website.”

“It’s also, like, the second class listed,” Allura says.

“That’s beside the point,” Lance says.  “I’ve made up my mind.” 

“That means you have a fighter, a cleric, a rogue, and a bard, so far,” Pidge reminds them.  “This is shaping up pretty well.”  She glances at Allura and Shiro, who have yet to make up their minds.  “Do the rest of you have any ideas?”

Allura sits up a little straighter in her seat.  “I was thinking of being a sorcerer,” she tells the group, smiling brightly.  “I read over the spells and they all seem rather useful to have in battle.”  She hands her phone to Shiro, who scans the list and nods, agreeing with her.  “Does that sound all right to the rest of you?”

No one says otherwise. 

Everyone turns to Shiro.

“You’re the last one,” Matt says.  He nudges Shiro with his elbow.  “What cha got?”

“I think monk sounds pretty cool.”

“What do they do?” Keith asks.

“They punch things.”

“Sounds perfect for you.”  Keith really seems to have loosened up as the night has gone on.

“That’s what I thought.”

“So, everyone knows their class?” Pidge asks.  “Good, good.  Now, time to figure out your races.”  Pidge takes the book from Hunk (since he’s sitting closest to her), and flips to the chapter on races.  “This book has the race chapter before the class one, but oh well.”  She shrugs, unperturbed.  “There’s the basic races: gnome, halfling, elf, half-elf, half-orc, human, and dwarf.  There’s also a couple new races in this version: tiefling and dragonborn.  Each race has its own strengths and weaknesses.  If you can’t figure out which one to be, human is always a safe bet because it’s the basic race.”

Keith is the first to speak up this time.  After a few minutes of reading over the races he says, “I’m gonna be a tiefling.”

Lance is the first to scroll to tiefling and read up on it.  “That’s the edgiest shit I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Keith flushes again, scowling.  “They look really cool,” he mumbles.  “Besides, they can see in the dark and have some good modifiers.” 

“I think it’s a great choice,” Shiro says, smiling at his younger brother. 

(Lance will never admit it out loud, but he hopes so be as good a big brother to his siblings as Shiro is to Keith.)

“I’m just gonna be a human,” Hunk says.  “It’s easiest.”

Shiro nods.  “Me too.”

“You’re no fun,” Lance quips.  “C’mon, we can be anybody we want to in this game!”

“Yeah, and I want to be a human monk,” Shiro replies, arching his eyebrows and smirking. 

 _Damn_ , Lance thinks.  _He got me there._

“ _Anyways_ ,” Allura begins, drawing the conversation away from the boys.  “I’m going to play a half-elf.”  Staring at her phone, she squints, reading carefully, before continuing, “she’s going to be half high elf.”

“Wow, she sounds like some sort of noble,” Lance teases.

Allura’s face lights up at the suggestion.  “Oh, Lance, that’s perfect!”  She quiets down after that, obviously devoting all her attention to coming up with her character’s backstory. 

“Lance?” Pidge asks.  “It’s just you left.”

Lance shrugs.  “I’ll probably just be an elf.”

“Is it because you think they’re hot?” Pidge asks.

“T-that’s totally not it,” Lance stammers.

“All right guys, it’s canon that Lance wants to fuck his character,” Keith announces, grinning widely.

Lance shrinks, thinking he preferred it when Keith was supposedly mad at him and didn’t talk as much.  “I’m thinking wood elf,” he says. 

No one disagrees.

“Well, it sounds like everyone knows the basics of their characters,” Pidge says.  “Feel free to meet up and figure out your backstories and if you know each other.  But, other than that, that’s about all you can do at this point before the campaign starts.”

The group sits back, throwing around various ideas of what Pidge could make them do (Keith looks up some pre-made campaigns and tells the groups what those contain).  Most of their guesses involve goblins and murder. 

Eventually, it grows late, and Pidge unceremoniously shoves everyone out the door, covering a yawn with the back of her hand.  “It’s not that we don’t like having you guys over here, it’s just that it’s really fucking late.”  Her smile is soft since she’s tired.  “See you guys later.”  She and Matt wave goodbye as their friends return to their apartments.

 

Lance pushes the Dungeons and Dragons campaign to the back of his mind for the next week.  Despite what people say about college, there’s no “syllabus week” in science; professors spend half of the first class glossing over the syllabus before launching into their introductory lessons.  They go from zero to a hundred a lot quicker than Lance would like, but he knows that it’s necessary with how much material his classes cover in a semester. 

He does, however, wish that he didn’t have to take invertebrate zoology, organic chemistry, and physics at the same time.  It’s more information than he thinks his brain can handle.

After the first week is over, Pidge pings the group text, reminding everybody that they should be working on their characters and looking for a time that works for everyone. 

Lance gives a little thought to his elf bard – he Googles a name generator and picks the first cool one that he finds: Aien Moonflower. 

But he doesn’t do much other than that.

The next Tuesday, Lance is curled up in an armchair in the study room of the biology building, reading (skimming) the chapter that they were going to be covering in class.  The door squeaks open, but he doesn’t look up. 

At least, he didn’t plan on looking up, but the couch pillow that collides with his face makes him change his mind.

“Hey, what the hell—” he chokes on the rest of his sentence once he sees who threw the pillow.

Keith.

It’s Keith.

Lance’s only thought is just a bunch of question marks, no real coherent sentences or even words form. 

“You’re in my seat,” Keith unceremoniously tells him.  “Where else am I supposed to read my riveting anatomy text book?”

“You’re name’s not on the chair,” Lance quips, returning his gaze to his book. 

“Yeah, but no one ever studies in here, so I figured I’d never be challenged.”

“Well, that’s rough buddy.”

Keith scowls and flops down on the couch before opening his anatomy book and staring at the page.  After a couple minutes of reading the same paragraph over and over (Lance isn’t faring much better), Keith sighs and slams his book shut. 

Lance startles, not prepared for such an action.  “You good?”

Ignoring Lance’s question, Keith asks, “have you worked any more on your character?”

Lance blanches.  “I named him.”

Keith arches his eyebrows, obviously not very impressed.  “That’s it?”

“Yeah.  Aien Moonflower is what I went with.”

“That’s cool.”

“What about you?”  Lance figures he’ll continue the conversation since Keith actually is trying to talk to him.

“His name is Rolxus.”

“Last name?”

Keith shrugs.  “What I looked up for tieflings showed that they didn’t really have last names.”

“Interesting.”

“Yeah, I, uh, I guess.  A-anyways, he’s got purple skin and yellow eyes.  The website said that there were a lot of options for tieflings, but I thought that sounded the best.”

“Have you thought of a backstory for him?”

Keith’s cheeks turn a bit pinker, something easily noticeable because of his pale skin.  “Not yet,” he says.  He pauses, but Lance doesn’t interrupt because he can tell that Keith is thinking over his next words carefully.  “I was wondering if you, well, if you wanted to work on that together because, um, I figured they could have known each other in the past.”

Lance tries not to let his skepticism show on his face.  What happened to the Keith that barely wanted to say a word to Lance?  To the Keith who never did more than scowl at Lance? 

Lance wonders if Shiro persuaded Keith to try and mend their friendship since they’d be spending so much time together with the campaign. 

“Yeah, that sounds good.  It’ll actually save me some time because it’s less that I have to come up with,” Lance says.  He flashes a grin to try and reassure Keith. 

A corner of Keith’s mouth tugs up in what Lance could claim to be a smile, so he’s pleased.  It’s progress.  “So how would an elf bard and a tiefling rogue know each other?”

“Dunno,” Lance answers with a shrug.

Keith scowls.

Lance’s grin grows because _there’s_ the Keith he remembers.  “Do _you_ have any ideas?” Lance asks, almost falling out of his chair as he attempts to prod Keith with his pencil.

After he finishes batting away Lance’s attacks, Keith says, “well, Rolxus has always felt like an outcast—”

“Oh my god, you’re so emo.”

Keith’s glare could wither plants, but Lance doesn’t cower.  Instead, he just smiles his trademark dorky smile, watching as Keith relaxes and his gaze softens.

“Anyways, you were saying?”

Keith shrugs.  “He feels like an outcast, but I was thinking that he could have, like, one friend who’s been there forever.”

“And you think Aien would be good for that role?” Lance supplies. 

Nodding, Keith replies, “yeah, I do.  But how do you think they met?  Same village?  Ran into each other on an adventure?” He looks to Lance, hopeful that the other boy can come up with something.

“Well, you’re a rogue right?”  Keith nods again.  “How about you tried to steal from me?”

“Tried?”

“Yeah, Aien is gonna be _way_ too smart to fall for that.”

“Have you even rolled his stats yet?”

“…no.”

“Then how would you know?”

Lance pouts, his lower lip sticking out.  “You’re no fun,” he whines.

“Just trying to be realistic.”

“Yeah, because Dungeons and Dragons is known for its realism,” Lance retorts sarcastically. 

That brings a small smile to Keith’s face, the corner of his mouth quirking up for just a second.  Lance thinks he’s gonna have to try harder to make Keith actually smile.  “But do you think that would work?”

“Aien catching Rolxus trying to steal from him?”

“Yeah.”

“I think it would be funny.  Y’know, two kids living on the streets trying to help each other out.”

“Kids?”

Lance nods enthusiastically.  “I mean, if they’re just kids when it happens it would explain why Rolxus might have messed up the pick pocket, and why Aien was so forgiving.  Especially if Aien didn’t have anybody,” Lance adds.  “He’d want to help out someone who was just as lost as he was.  Besides, Rolxus could be the reason Aien picked up being a bard.  It would give them a legitimate form of income.”

“You’re really getting into this,” Keith notes. 

Blushing, Lance shifts his gaze from Keith to his textbook. 

“I-I didn’t mean it in a bad way,” Keith says, scrambling to recover the situation.  He pinches the bridge of his nose, knowing insulting Lance was _not_ what Shiro had in mind when he suggested trying to be friends again.  It’s not that Keith doesn’t like Lance, per se, it’s just that Keith thinks Lance can be unbelievably annoying and impulsive and short-sighted and childish at all the wrong times.

“Yeah, I know,” Lance says.  “It just kinda interrupted my train of thought, is all.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

An awkward silence ensues.  Lance thinks about what would be best to say next, Keith debates whether or not he was up to Shiro’s task. 

“So, they’re best friends?” Lance eventually asks, trying to start up a conversation again.  He stares at Keith until the other boy meets his eyes.

“Yeah,” Keith agrees.  “They’re best friends.”  He thinks that maybe it can give him and Lance an example.

Lance unlocks his phone, checking the time before returning the device to his backpack.  “I still have, like, thirty minutes before class if you wanna roll up our character stats.”

“I already did mine,” Keith says.  Noticing Lance’s disappointment, he quickly adds, “but I can help you with yours if you want.”

“Yeah, that’d be nice.”

Tossing his book into his backpack, Lance moves from the chair to the couch next to Keith.  Lance scrolls through the player’s handbook that he has pulled up on his phone until he reaches the section on bards.  Skimming through it again (let’s be honest, he barely read more than what a bard was the first time he looked it up) Lance notices that true bards, as the books calls them, spend a lot of their life traveling and learning the lore and magic of the world around him.  He tells Keith as much.

“Then, Aien and Rolxus can have traveled a lot.  It also helps because it keeps Rolxus from being in one place for too long so that people don’t catch onto his stealing.”

“Yeah, yeah that’s good.”

They spend the next little while figuring out Aien Moonflower’s stats.  Lance takes his time assigning the rolls to his abilities – he knows that the eighteen should go to charisma and the fifteen to dexterity, since those are what bards rely most on, but he can’t figure out if he should put the ten towards intelligence or strength. 

“The other one would only be an eleven, so it doesn’t really matter,” Keith tells him.  He’s trying not to be short with Lance, but he just doesn’t understand why it’s so important.  He won’t really be using either skill as a bard, so why not just randomly assign the numbers and just accept the consequences later?

“Just because you weren’t picky about which stat got which number doesn’t mean I have to be,” Lance snaps.   “I want to be sure that I have a well-rounded character, y’know?”

“We’ve got plenty of time to learn more about them, Lance,” Keith says softly, his previous annoyance dissipating.  “More will happen as we play the campaign.”  He pauses, brow furrowed as he thinks about why this is such a big deal to Lance. 

“I just want to do this right,” Lance says, still frowning as he glances between his phone and the piece of notebook paper he’s writing all the information down.  “Pidge has worked really hard on this campaign and I don’t want to let her down.”  Keith nods in understanding.  Pidge and Lance have been friends since they were kids.  “I know most of you don’t expect me to take this seriously because that’s the kind of person I seem to be, but I’m going to for her.  She’s put up with my weird and stupid shit for years, so it’s time I return the favor and put a lot of effort into this.”

“I don’t think Pidge is gonna be upset if you make your strength higher than intelligence,” Keith says.  “In fact, she’d probably expect you to do that.”

Keith notices how Lance’s smile softens his face.  His blue eyes glimmer and his freckles stand out against his olive skin. 

It’s not a bad look on him.   

“Yeah, you’re right,” Lance says, his usual cocky attitude returning.  With that, he quickly assigns the rest of Aien’s stats – with the eleven going to intelligence to “throw off Pidge” or so he claims.  “Thanks for your help with that,” he says, which (weirdly) causes Keith’s heart to skip a beat.  He’s never been that great at making or keeping friends before, so he can only attribute it to that.  “I’d better get headed to class, though.”  Standing, he carefully folds the paper before slipping it into the pocket of his planner.  “I’ll see you later?”  It comes out as a question.

“Definitely,” Keith replies.  He waves to Lance as the other boy leaves the study room.  Lance grins goofily and returns the wave.

Left to himself, Keith finally relaxes.  He thinks he did a pretty good job at being friends with Lance, even if the other boy was a little frustrating to deal with at some points.  He ponders over their interactions, remembering the strangely comfortable way the couch dipped beneath Lance’s weight when he abandoned the armchair (a crime, really, considering how comfortable it is) and chose to sit by Keith instead.  He also remembers Lance’s bright blue eyes and dorky smile.

Those must be a good sign, right?

Lance was friendly with everyone, sure, but Lance had seemed more animated while they were talking than he was with strangers.

Keith sighs, rubbing the heels of his hands against his eyes.  Friendship is harder than he expected, especially when he has such a good reason to hold a grudge.  His phone buzzes and, after seeing the message, he’s glad that he was able to get together with Lance today and work on their characters.  Pidge wants to start the campaign tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading the first chapter!!!!
> 
> I came up with thisAU a while ago, but it takes a long time to roll up 6 different D&D characters and write a short campaign for them, so I wanted to be sure I had all of that done before I posted any of it haha
> 
> if you wanna know about why I chose what I did for each of the paladins + allura and matt (be it their major, their d&d class and race, etc), feel free to hmu at [my tumblr](http://www.annalyia.tumblr.com) that has the same username


	2. Chapter 2

“There’s no way we’re going to be able to play every Tuesday, Pidge,” Lance says as he sits.  “What if we have tests on Wednesday or club meetings or something?”

“We aren’t going to meet every Tuesday, Lance,” Pidge replies.  “This is just a day that worked well for our first meeting.”

The living room of Pidge and Matt’s apartment has been transformed.  The entertainment stand and coffee table have been moved into Pidge’s room (no one is quite sure how Matt and Pidge managed that without help), leaving lots of extra space for a large rectangular table (no one knows where it came from) in the middle of the room.  The couch is lining one side of the table and the other side has the chairs from the dining room table.  Pidge has claimed the large, comfy arm chair at the head of the table as the DM’s chair.  She snuggles herself into the chair, her DM screen in front of her so that no one else can see what she has planned for them. 

Matt, Shiro, and Allura are sitting on side of the table with the dining room chairs, much to their disappointment.  Something about grad school and rotations and internships being more difficult than undergrad, making them more deserving of the couch.

But, of course, the argument fell on deaf ears.  As the older students were complaining, Keith, Hunk, and Lance were situating themselves on the couch with choruses of “what?  Can’t hear you,” and “think you need to speak up,” and other silly things.

“All right, does everyone think they’re ready?” Pidge asks.

The others look around, making sure that they have their character sheets and dice sets, along with snacks and drinks.  There is a general consensus.

“Cool.  First, tell each other your character names so that we have an idea of who is who.”

General introductions are done – Matt is playing a dwarf named Baldrouc, Allura a half-elf named Elisys, Hunk a human named Levi, and Shiro a human named Wells. 

“Okay, here we go!”  Pidge grins, completely and totally excited for what she has laid out.

She stands up in her chair, leaning over her DM screen to spread out a piece of grid paper on the table.  Once she’s satisfied with the grid, she places some figurines down as well.

“Holy shit, are those us?” Lance asks, amazed at how much Pidge has done for this.

“Yeah.  I only took the basic info from the other night since _some people_ neglected to send me their character background and stuff until thirty minutes before we started playing tonight.  So, they’re basic.  I’ll paint them later.”

Pidge continues her work, setting the figurines up. 

“All right, because I’m basic, all of you are starting out in the same tavern in the same town.  The tavern is called The Singing Lass, which is an apt description because there’s always a female minstrel present, her sweet music calming all the patrons.  It’s getting late in the day; the sun has set and only the most dedicated customers and regulars are still here.  Then, of course, all of you are here as well.

Aien and Rolxus are at the bar, probably on their third or fourth drink for the night.  They’re whispering to each other, their conversation punctuated by occasional laughter, so I’m sure you guys can guess what they’re talking about.”

“Dicks, probably,” Lance says, but he doesn’t elaborate because an icy glare from Pidge shuts him up.

“ _Anyways_ ,” Pidge continues.  “Baldrouc and Levi are sitting at a table arm wrestling, their drinks sitting forgotten to the side.  Elisys is at a table in the corner by herself, sipping a non-alcoholic drink and watching all the other patrons closely.  Wells is at another table, enjoying a meal.”  She pauses, looking to her friends for their reactions.  “What do you want to do?”

“Who wins?  Baldrouc or Levi?  Let’s settle that first,” Matt says. 

“Okay, both of you roll a strength check,” Pidge tells them.

Hunk and Matt both pick through their dice before finding a d20 to make the roll.  Hunk’s set is an earthy yellow color with black etching and Matt’s is a grayish blue with silver numbers.

“Uh, that’s a…”  Hunk mutters some addition under his breath before continuing, “that’s a sixteen for me.”  He looks expectantly at Matt.

“I got a shitty fourteen,” Matt grumbles. 

Hunk grins triumphantly.  “So, Levi just kinda stares Baldrouc in the eyes, grins, and slams his hand down on the table.”

“I wouldn’t say that he slams it, Hunk,” Pidge corrects.  “You didn’t beat Matt by _that_ much.”

Hunk’s grin becomes a pout.  “Fine.  Levi, with more effort than I thought it would take, beats Baldrouc in arm wrestling.”

“Best two out of three?” Matt asks.

“What?  No, I beat you fair and square.”

“C’mon, we both know it was pretty close,” Matt argues.  “Besides, there’s no way that a human is stronger than a dwarf.”

“Obviously there is because I just beat you,” Hunk deadpans.

Lance smirks.  This campaign is definitely off to a good start.

“By this point, Aien has turned around in his chair and is watching Levi and Baldrouc,” Lance says.

“Does he have a shit-eating grin on his face?” Pidge asks.

“Oh, hell _yeah_ he does.”  Lance adopts a similar grin for example.  “He nudges Rolxus and raises his eyebrows, but doesn’t interrupt them.”

“So, is anybody going to step in and stop Baldrouc and Levi’s argument before it escalates?” Pidge asks the room at large. 

“I suppose I will,” Allura says.  Sitting up a little straighter, she continues, “Elisys looks at the two men before asking them if confrontation is really necessary.”

“I’d say that Levi calms down when he hears her, realizing she has a point.”

“I’d like to point out that Aien frowns and gets disappointed.  He loves a good tavern brawl.”

“Rolxus nudges Aien and tells him to keep watching.”

“Does Wells have anything to add?”

Shiro shakes his head.  “He just wants to eat his food in peace.  He’s a simple guy.”

“Baldrouc extends his hand to Levi,” Matt says, butting in on the conversation.  “He also apologizes for being so hot headed.”

“Levi accepts the apology.”

“At this point, all of you are interrupted when the door bursts open.  Standing in the doorway is a haggard-looking young man.  His eyes are wide with fear as they dart around the room, looking for someone in particular.  They land on Levi,” Pidge says.  “Levi, since this is your hometown and you know everyone in it, you recognize this man as Laurens Hill, one of the local farmers.  He notices you and rushes over.  What do you do?”

“Well, Levi looks really concerned and asks him what’s wrong.”

“Laurens is breathing really heavily, so it takes him a second to reply.  But he says, Levi!  There’s goblins at the farm, please, we need your help.”  Pidge adopts a gruffer voice for Laurens’ role, causing her friends to stifle giggles. 

“Y-yeah, of course I’ll help, Laurens, don’t worry,” Hunk says – his voice is a little different too.  “What?” he asks when the other stare at him.  “If Pidge is doing a character voice I think that we all should, that way we don’t have to say ‘my character said this’ we can just change our voices for when we’re in and out of character.”

There is a general consensus as the others agree with Hunk’s choice. 

“But only if Keith does a Batman voice for Rolxus.  Y’know, that deep and raspy voice.”

“I’ll do it if Aien sounds like an idiot,” Keith counters.

“Well, he’s Lance, so it’s not gonna be that hard,” Pidge says.

“Pidge, what the _fuck_ , I thought we were friends,” Lance replies, hand over his heart as he feigns being insulted. 

“So, it’s happening?” Shiro asks, grinning.

“Of course it’s happening!” Lance says.

“Hey, guys, this is nice and all, but can we get back to the fact that my fucking farm is fucking on fire and being attacked by fucking goblins?” Pidge asks in her gruff tone, drawing them all back into the campaign.

“Right!  Levi turns to Baldrouc and asks if he’ll help.”

“Of course I will,” Matt answers in a horrible imitation of a Scottish accent, causing everyone to burst into laughter.  “Shut up, I’m working on it.” 

“Aien nudges Rolxus and gives him this sort of head nod before telling Levi that they’ll help as well,” Lance says. 

“I’ll help, too,” Allura says, but it’s in this fucking _incredible_ southern American accent, so everyone startles when they hear it.

“I did not know you had that in you, babe,” Shiro says, way more stunned than everyone else.  “Are you gonna start saying y’all?”

Scowling, Allura replies, “I don’t know what _y’all_ want to do, but I say that we head there immediately.”  She sighs.  “I’m never saying y’all again,” she tells them, her crisp British accent back.  “What barbaric word.”

“I actually think it’s a great word,” Pidge says.  “It covers all your bases and is way shorter than most other forms of addressing large groups of people.”

“Still barbaric.”

“So, back to the campaign at hand.  Shiro, I think you’re the only one who hasn’t decided what you’re gonna do,” Pidge says. 

“Wells pushes his plate away before standing.  I’m going as well,” Shiro says.

“Shiro, c’mon,” Hunk says.

“What?”

“Shiro, remember, we literally _just_ decided we were gonna do character voices.”

“What are you talking about?  I totally changed my voice.”

“N-no, you didn’t,” Hunk replies, chuckling. 

“Yeah, dude, you sounded exactly the same,” Lance chimes in.

“No way, I definitely sounded different.  Right, babe?”  He looks to Allura.

“Shiro, darling, I do love you,” she says, neither confirming nor denying his question.

“Damn,” Shiro says.  “Well, then it’s decided that Wells and I have the same voice.”

“So, _anyways_ ,” Pidge says again.  She’s starting to think that interruptions are going to happen a lot with this group, but she knows she should have anticipated it.  “Are you ready to go?” she asks in Laurens’ voice.  “I’ll take you to the edge of my property, but I can’t help you fight.”

“Yeah, Laurens, we’re ready.  Let’s get going,” Hunk says.  “Levi gestures to everybody to follow him.”

“All right, so the six of you quickly follow Laurens out of the tavern, followed by shouts from the bartender of how you had all better return and pay for your food and drinks.  It’s a little bit of a walk to Laurens’ farm, seeing as it’s closer to the outskirts of the town than most of the others.  But, the closer you get, the more obvious it is that there’s trouble.  There’s some smoke rising from his fields.  He quickens his pace, urging all of you on with him.  What order are you in?”  Pidge pauses in her narration before standing on her chair and leaning over the DM screen to reach the table in front of her.  She moves their figurines around according to their answers.  Levi is up front, followed by Baldrouc and Elisys, with Aien, Rolxus, and Wells behind them.  She arranges them in two concentric semicircles before crouching again, picking up a couple things from behind her screen.  Reemerging, she places five other figures on the table.  “And here’s your first battle,” she says.  She snuggles herself back into her chair before continuing, “all of you come to a complete stop at the edge of the property.  You see five goblins in front of you, but they don’t seem to have noticed you yet.  What do you want to do?”

“Is there anything else that I can see?” Shiro asks.

“Roll a perception check.”

“How do I even—”

“Take your d20, or someone else’s if you haven’t bought dice yet, and roll it.”

“Okay, I got a thirteen.”

“Do you have a modifier?”

“A what?”

“Jesus, Shiro, did you seriously not read up on _anything_ before you got here?” 

Shiro doesn’t answer.

“Okay, well, look on your character sheet.  You’ve got a skills list, and perception is one of your skills.  Is there a number next to it?”

“A three.”

“Okay, so add three to your roll.”

“So, that makes it a sixteen.”

“Good!  That means that, Wells, you can tell that one of the goblins is wearing better armor and has better weapons than the other four, meaning that he looks a little tougher than the others.” 

“I tell the others as much.”

“Working as a team already, this is _way_ better than I ever could have hoped from you guys,” Pidge says, wiping fake tears from her eyes.  She returns her attention to her notebook.  It’s a simple leather-bound book, with a tree on the front and a golden piece of ribbon to act as a bookmark.  They’d asked her earlier why she didn’t just keep everything on a computer (as was expected of Pidge, the literal computer genius), and she had told them that is just seemed more traditional to have her campaign written in a notebook.  “So, who’s ready to fuck up some goblins?”  She laughs as her friends fidget in their seats, almost nervously, preparing for their first battle.  “Since they still haven’t noticed you, I’m gonna give one of you an attack of opportunity.  Basically, one of you is gonna get a really good sneak attack off and it’ll alert the goblins to your presence, so after that, it’ll be rolling for initiative and time for some turn-based combat.”

“Who has the best stealth skill?” Matt asks.  “That person should go first because they’ll be most likely to hit.”

“Uh, it’s probably gonna be me,” Keith says.  “Rolxus has a plus seven to stealth.”

“Already?  What the fuck, Keith?” Pidge asks. 

“He’s proficient in it _and_ has expertise in it.  And his base for it’s a three since it’s based off his dexterity, which is his best score.”

Pidge shrugs.  “Can’t argue with that logic.”

“Give ‘em hell, bud,” Lance says in his Aien voice, which is best described as dopey. 

“Y-yeah, of course,” Keith replies in his best Batman voice, trying not to guffaw at Lance’s goofy character voice.

“Okay, Keith, since you’re using the surprise attack, what do you want to do?”

“I think that I should go for the guy who looks like he’s tougher than the others.”

“Sounds good.  Roll to attack.  I’ll give you advantage on this, which means that you can roll twice and take the better roll.”

“The better one was a fifteen,” Keith says.  “Is there anything I can add to it?”

Pidge pooches her lips to the side, thinking carefully.  “I’ll add plus two because you’re surprising him.”  She flips to a page in her book and skims it.  “That makes your roll a seventeen, which hits him.  Now, roll for damage.”

“Okay, I have two daggers, which means I roll a d4 twice, once for each dagger,” he murmurs to himself.  “That’s a four,” he says excitedly after rolling the first die.  “And a one.”  He’s less enthusiastic about that roll. 

“All right, well, Rolxus blends into the shadows, freaking out most everyone but Aien as he disappears, before reappearing behind the toughest goblin, sinking both of his daggers into the goblin’s back.  Said goblin screams and thrashes, tossing Rolxus off.  Now, roll for initiative.”

Pidge writes down the order as they call out their numbers, being sure to include the five goblins.  It ends up being Levi, three of the goblins, Baldrouc, Wells, Elisys, another goblin, Aien, the last goblin, and Keith. 

“Keith is going last because he botched actually killing the goblin when he had the advantage,” Lance says.

“Go to hell,” Keith says. 

“Let’s get going, boy-os,” Pidge says.  “Levi, you’re up.”

After some deliberation, Hunk decides to have Levi charge in with his longsword.

Except, he rolls a three, so his attack harmlessly bounces off the goblin’s armor. 

Next, one of the goblins turns on Keith.  “He’s pissed that you were able to sneak up on him.  What’s your AC?” Pidge asks. 

“Fourteen.”

“Okay, it hits for…” she pauses, rolling some dice behind her screen.  “…six damage.”

“Pidge that’s over half my fucking health,” Keith protests. 

“Sucks to suck,” Pidge responds without looking up. 

Another goblin runs at Wells, but missing completely, tripping over himself and falling on the ground. 

The last goblin hits Allura for three damage. 

“You ready, Matt?” Pidge asks.

Matt nods, rolling his d20.  “It’s a thirteen, does that hit the goblin that attacked Allura?”

“It sure does.”

“Sweet!”  He rolls a regular six-sided die.  “I swing my hand axe for six damage.”

“Okay, so you bury your axe in his shoulder and he screams out.  He staggers back, reeling from your hit,” Pidge describes.  “Ready, Wells?”

Shiro nods.  “I got a fourteen, so since Matt hit, I’m gonna assume I do as well.  Next, I punch him.”

“You punch him?” Allura asks.

“Yeah, Allura, I punch him.  I’m a monk.  That’s what we do.”  He rolls a d4.  “That’s a solid four,” Shiro tells Pidge.

“Okay, so with a strong punch to the face, the goblin falls to the ground, dead.  And congrats guys!  You’ve killed your first monster!”

There is some cheering.  Lance high fives Keith.

Keith’s heart beats a little quicker at the fact that Lance chose him (instead of, say, Hunk) to high five.

“Now, don’t forget that there’s five of them left,” Pidge reminds them, instantly causing their joy to lessen.  “Allura, it’s your turn.”

Allura nods, eyes searching her character sheet for something.  “I’m going to cast…acid splash on the goblin that is attacking Keith.  It has to make a dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 acid damage.”

“Okay, each of us are gonna roll a d20, and if you roll better, he’ll take the damage,” Pidge explains.  Allura rolls a natural twenty, so Pidge doesn’t even try to contest it.  “Yeah, okay, that definitely hits him.  Damage?”

“A six!”  Allura is beaming, pleased with her fantastic rolls. 

“Okay, this goblin falls to his knees.  He’s not dead yet, but he definitely looks like a strong wind could topple him.  Next is another one of the goblins.  He decides to go for Keith, since he looks like he got hurt bad earlier.”  She rolls a die, and her eyes grow wide at the result.  “But, uh, he rolls at nat one and actually ends up just fucking stabbing the one who Allura hit last turn instead of Keith.  So, that means that you’ve taken down one normal goblin and the stronger one.”  She leans over the screen again and knocks down two of the goblin figurines.  “Okay, Lance, it’s you turn.”

“Aien pulls out his crossbow and takes aim at the goblin closest to Rolxus.  He’s gotta protect his best friend,” Lance says (Keith feels his face heat up a little, but he does his best to ignore it).  “And that’s a nat twenty!” Lance exclaims, fist pumping the air.  “That means it’s a critical hit, right?”

“Right,” Pidge affirms.  “So, that means that you roll your d8 twice.”

Lance rolls twice and adds the numbers together.  “Ten!” 

“Your crossbow bolt goes straight through this goblin’s skull, killing him instantly.”

“Three goblins down,” Lance says, grinning like an absolute doofus.

“One of the last goblins remaining turns to Lance, assuming he’s the biggest threat because he just one-shot another goblin.  He aims his shortbow, and…”  Pidge grimaces.  “Lance, what’s your AC and how much health do you have?”

“Um, AC is fourteen and health is nine.  This can’t be good.”

“Yeah, uh, this goblin takes advantage of how distracted you are by killing that goblin and his arrow pierces your shoulder, doing eight points of damage.”

Lance shouts something in Spanish.  Keith doesn’t understand it, but it’s clear from Pidge’s expression that it was not pretty.

“Lance!” Pidge scolds.  “Watch your mouth.”

“You’re one to talk,” Lance grumbles.

“You understood that?” Keith asks, genuinely interested.

“Yeah.  I taught myself a lot of Spanish when I was a kid because I wanted to know what Lance and his family were saying to each other,” Pidge answers.  “Anyways, you killed the goblin that was supposed to go next, so it’s Rolxus’ turn.”

“Rolxus just goes and stabs the goblin that attacked Aien.  L-like Lance said, gotta protect the best friend,” Keith says.  “That’s a thirteen, so it hits for…four damage.”

“You sink your daggers into his back and he screeches, but he’s still standing.  And now we’re back to the top of the order.”

The rest of the battle isn’t that eventful.  Hunk finishes off the goblin Keith injured, and the last goblin hits Shiro for two damage before being killed by another of Allura’s spells. 

“Good job guys,” Pidge says, smiling.  “You’ve successfully survived your first battle.”

“Can I heal Lance really quick?” Matt asks.  “I walk up to him, lay a hand on his shoulder, and he gets five hit points back.”

“Thanks, dude,” Lance says.  “I’m glad _someone_ —” he stares pointedly at Pidge “—cares about my wellbeing.”

“It’s my job,” Matt replies, laughing. 

Pidge checks her watch.  “Okay, guys, combat takes a long time.  It’s almost eleven now.  We can either call it here, or you can go back to the town and find out what’s up.”

“I vote we call it,” Hunk says with a yawn.  “I’ve got an 8 AM tomorrow.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Pidge says.  “Keep your eye on the group message because we’re gonna be looking for another day that we can play.  It doesn’t have to be any time this week if that doesn’t work.”  She stands from her chair, raising her arms over her head, stretching out her stiff joints.  The others follow her example, gathering their papers and dice and dishes.  “Did you guys have a good time?” Pidge asks, her bright brown eyes searching their faces. 

“Yeah, Pidge, it was great,” Lance says, his voice soft as he throws an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to ruffle her hair.  “And I’m sure that whatever else you have planned will be just as good.”

“Thanks, bud,” Pidge replies, smiling up at her friend.  “Now let go of me.”

“Right.  Got it.”  Lance drops his arm back to his side, grinning sheepishly. 

In the meantime, Shiro has been whispering in Keith’s ear.  Lance side-eyes them, but doesn’t do much more than quirk an eyebrow at Keith, who either doesn’t notice or blatantly ignores Lance. 

Matt has slowly been ushering all of his friends closer to the door.  “Get out of here, guys,” he says. 

Allura and Shiro wave goodbye to Hunk and Lance on the walkway before turning at heading down the stairs, but Keith lingers behind, hand stuffed into his pockets and shoulders slumped. 

“I’ll see you at home, bud,” Hunk says without warning, patting Lance on the shoulder before leaving him alone with Keith.

“So, that was fun,” Lance says uncertainly. 

“Yeah,” Keith absently replies.

There’s an awkward pause.

“D-do you need something?” Lance asks.  It pains him to be so blunt, but at the same time, Keith isn’t saying anything so there isn’t much else he can do. 

“Do you want to study sometime?” Keith blurts, face flushing.

Lance grins goofily, attributing Keith’s blush to being nervous about friendship.  “Yeah, Keith, I’d love to do that.”  Love to?  He grimaces internally, hoping he didn’t sound too weird.  “I mean, we don’t have that many classes in common, but I’m sure it would be a good time.”

Lance sees the tension leave Keith’s body as he stands up a little straighter and smiles, really smiles, at Lance.  His violet eyes are soft and—that’s strange—a little hopeful, almost.  “Cool.  I’ll see you tomorrow, maybe?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure thing, Keith.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading chapter two!
> 
> fun fact: I'm actually doing all of the attack and damage and skill rolls instead of just making up the numbers
> 
> so someone asked me about why I chose the classes and races that I did for each person! [here's](http://annalyia.tumblr.com/post/167497462471/yo-this-be-ren-n-i-live-for-voltron-dungeons-and) a link to the explanation 
> 
> comments and kudos are always appreciated!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there are a couple songs mentioned in this chapter:  
> "Work Song" by Hozier  
> "Naked Kids" by GroupLove  
> "One Foot" by Walk the Moon

Studying goes well.  In fact, it goes so well that Keith and Lance start commuting to school together, since their classes start at about the same time. 

Keith discovers that Lance wasn’t kidding when he said he was a good singer. 

While it is unfortunate that Lance either listens to Top 40 radio or Spanish songs that Keith can’t even pretend to understand, Keith has come to absolutely love car rides with Lance.  Whenever a song that Lance really likes comes on, he cranks up the volume (almost too loud, sometimes), and sings along, somehow knowing every lyric perfectly.  Sure, there are times where his voice cracks because a note is too high or too low, but Keith loves every second of it.  There’s a slight huskiness to Lance’s voice that reminds Keith of Hozier and other such artists.

Keith thinks he’d much prefer to hear Lance sing songs like that as opposed to the overly auto-tuned synthetic stuff that seems to clog up the radio.

That Friday, when Keith climbs into the front seat of Lance’s little station wagon, he stops the other boy from choosing music.  “It’s my turn today,” he says.

“What?  No way!  Driver chooses the music.  That’s, like, a standard driving rule,” Lance protests.

“Yeah, but I’ve been putting up with your shit all week, so now it’s your turn to listen to what I like.  Besides, I think you might even like some of it,” Keith counters.

Keith snatches the aux cord before Lance can say anything else, plugging it into his phone.  “This is just kind of a mix I’ve been working on this week,” he says.  “Like I told you, I’m more into alternative rock and folk and stuff, but I will say that I can see why top forty songs are so popular.  They’re catchy.  Anyways, I just put some songs on here that I thought you might like.”

Lance’s smile is soft.  He looks at Keith with an easy gaze in his blue, blue eyes.  “Okay, Keith.  Start it up.”

The song begins with some simple guitar and claps.  Lance squints and his lips barely part, listening carefully.  “Boy’s workin’ on empty,” he sings along. 

“You know this song?”

“I worshipped the ground that Hozier walked on when this album came out,” Lance quips.  “I heard ‘Take me to Church’ on the radio once and _immediately_ bought the album.  He has the voice of a sweet, sweet angel.  I’d probably marry him if he asked.”

“Oh good because I put that entire album on here.  I couldn’t decide which song or songs would be best, so I just threw it all in,” Keith replies, trying to ignore Lance’s last comment.

Instead of replying, Lance just continues singing along, voice soft and smooth and sweet and Keith finds himself listening to Lance instead of Hozier, completely enraptured by the other boy’s voice. 

“You good there, Keith?” Lance asks, drawing Keith out of his trance.  “You’re just kinda staring.”

“What?  Oh, um, y-yeah, I’m fine,” Keith stammers, blushing, embarrassed that he was caught staring. 

“You sure?”

“Y-yeah, it’s just, um…”  He trails off, gaze fixed pointedly on his knees, face burning. 

“Just what?”

“You sing really well.”

That soft and sweet smile returns to Lance’s face.  “Thanks.”

They spend the rest of the drive in silence, just listening to the music that Keith chose, with Lance humming along when he recognizes a tune. 

Finally, they reach campus.  Lance flashes his student ID at the gate and then makes his way to the biology building.  He parks in the lot closest to it.  “C’mon, Mullet, I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a test in my first class, so I’ve got a lot of last-minute reviewing to do.”

Since he beats Keith to the study room, Lance smugly curls up in the armchair, his notebook in his lap and laptop perched on the table next to him.  He reviews each slide and compares it to his handwritten lecture notes, lips silently forming words as he reads.  Keith, on the other hand, had a test yesterday, so he only skims his notes, fixing parts that are hard to read and making sure that everything makes sense. 

Eventually, Lance’s phone alarm goes off, and he scrambles to stuff his things in his backpack and make his way to his classroom.  “See ya later, Keith,” he says as he leaves.  “Thanks for the company.”

“Anytime.”

A few minutes after the door shuts behind Lance, it opens again, and Keith looks up to see his older brother standing in the doorway.  “Am I interrupting anything?” Shiro asks, a small smirk on his mouth.

“Nah, I wasn’t really studying anyways,” Keith replies.  He drops his books on the floor so that Shiro can sit down on the couch next to him.  “What’s up?  Aren’t you supposed to be in class?”

“I think it’s going really well between you two,” Shiro says.  Well, he never was one to beat around the bush.  “But to answer your question, no, I’m not.  I just finished teaching a freshman bio lab.”  He stares at Keith expectantly, an eyebrow raised.

“Yeah, things are, uh, they’re better.”

“Don’t think I can’t tell.”

“Tell what?”  Keith crosses his arms and curls in on himself, defensive. 

“You like him.”

“I-what-no, I-I would never—” Keith splutters. 

“Methinks the lady doth protest too much,” Shiro says. 

“How could I like someone who set me on fire once?”

“Well, considering he did it on accident, immediately put it out, and tried to be the best lab partner after that, I could see it.  You know he didn’t mean it.  Besides, we _both_ know that was months ago, and your recent behavior says that it’s possible,” Shiro counters smoothly. 

Keith squeezes his eyes shut, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes.  “I don’t want to think about it,” he mumbles.  “It’s been, like, barely three weeks, no one develops feelings that quickly.”

There’s absolutely no fucking way that he likes Lance.

Zero.

Zip.

Nada.

None.

It’s not possible.

And yet…

He holds his head in his hands, pondering his big brother’s words. 

Sure, there are _things_ about Lance that he likes.  His singing, his freckles, his blue, blue eyes, his stupid sense of humor, but that doesn’t mean he has a crush on him. 

It’s possible to appreciate a person without liking them like that, he tells himself.

Shiro places a reassuring hand on Keith’s shoulder, giving it a gently squeeze.  “That’s okay,” he says. 

Keith shakes his head.  “What…what if I _do_ like him?” he asks quietly.  “What then?”

“You should be his friend first,” Shiro says simply. 

“But I thought we were already friends,” Keith says, exasperated.

“Then you’re doing a good job.  But I mean more than D&D, more than studying.  Hang out together, just the two of you doing something that you wouldn’t normally do.”  He sighs, and his hand moves to pull Keith in for a one-armed hug, trying to loosen his brother up. 

“What if he doesn’t like me back?”  Keith’s voice is so quiet, so soft, Shiro almost doesn’t hear him.

Shiro purses his lips.  Keith never has been afraid to ask the hard questions, not since their parents died.  “You don’t know that.”

“I guess…”

“Keith, c’mon, what’s not to like about you?”

“I’m impulsive, hot-headed, arrogant, awkward, bad at social interactions, etcetera,” Keith lists, scowling.  “That’s not a lot of good traits.”

“While all of those may be true, it doesn’t matter.  You’re not always like that.  You’re not any of those things right now.”

“I guess,” Keith repeats.  “But there’s no way that Lance likes me back.”

“You don’t know that,” Shiro says again, more forcefully this time.  “Keith, you only just started feeling this way yourself, so who knows how Lance feels?  Besides, you’ve always claimed about his being, and I quote, ‘ridiculously fucking spacey,’ so maybe he hasn’t even realized that he could like you back.”

“Last I checked, he only likes girls.”

“You could always ask him.”

“How the hell do you even approach that subject?”

“You tell me.”

Keith worries his lower lips between his teeth, thinking.  “Well, he did say earlier that he’d marry Hozier.”

“Keith, _I’d_ marry Hozier.”

“Not helping, bro,” Keith replies with a laugh.  He smiles at Shiro before sighing heavily.  “Okay.  I can do this.  I’ll just be his friend and we’ll see how it goes.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Shiro says.  He ruffles Keith’s hair.

“Hey!”

“I’m your older brother, I am always allowed to do that, no matter how old you are,” Shiro retorts, grinning.  He checks his watch.  “I do gotta get going though, so I’ll see you later.”

“Bye.”

Keith sighs again after Shiro leaves.  He slumps down on the couch, wondering if he can melt into the cushions. 

He likes Lance.

It’s a little freeing to finally be able to admit it.

But, he also knows that he can’t allow it to influence him too much.  If he starts acting, y’know, _weird_ around Lance, the other boy isn’t _so_ oblivious that he wouldn’t notice.  Keith knows that he has to continue just being Lance’s friend.  If there’s anything there, it’ll show up with time.

If not?

Well, Keith always has been good at cutting people out of his life.

Keith sighs again, trying to focus on his anatomy notes, and not on Lance.

Not on his chestnut hair, sun-kissed caramel-colored skin, ocean blue eyes, dorky smile, strong arms—

It obviously doesn’t go well.

How is he supposed to think about anything else when he could imagine losing himself in those eyes that shine like stars, kissing each of those freckles—

“I didn’t think you to still be here.”

Keith is pulled hard to port as the door opens and Lance—oh, god, _Lance_ —enters the room, done with his test much earlier than Keith expected.

“Well, my first class was, uh, canceled today, so I figured I’d just hang in here while you were in yours,” Keith explains, much smoother than he thought possible.

Lance tilts his head to the side, confused.  “Why’d you come in early if your class was canceled?”

“Because, um, y-you like having company in the morning.  Besides, I got the email about fifteen minutes before we’d have normally left and I was already awake and mostly ready to go.”

Lance grins before plopping down in the armchair (Keith hasn’t fought him for that chair since the first day), long legs splayed in front of him.  “Yeah, okay, I get that.  Do you still have your 10:15?”

Keith nods.  “Mhm.  So, I’m gonna go to that when it’s time.”

“Okay!” Lance says brightly.  He tucks his legs under himself, curling up in the chair.  “My test wasn’t that bad.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhm.  It was just over development and invertebrate larval strategies, neither of which are very hard.  I’d also covered them before in high school, so it wasn’t all new material.”  He rests his head on his arms, which are lying on the arm of the chair.  “I still have to get ready for orgo in twenty minutes.”

“Why do you call it that?”

“What?  Orgo?”  Keith nods.  “You try saying organic chemistry twenty times in one conversation.  It gets real annoying real quick.”

“Like you?” Keith jokes, not really thinking about what he is saying.  He _is_ impulsive.

“Wow,” Lance says, drawing out the o for a few seconds.  “Rude.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean it,” Keith says.  “I’m just kidding.”

“Mhm, sure.  Whatever, Keith.  I’m hurt.”

“Aw, Lance, c’mon.  There’s no need to pout.”

“You’ve wounded me.”

“I’m sorry.  There, is that better?”

“It’ll have to do.”

“I’ll take that.”

They grin at each other, and Keith feels his heart skip another beat.

Ah, yes.  That’s familiar, but at least now he has a cause for it.

“Well, I’d better get over to the chem building,” Lance says, clearing his throat.  “See you at lunch with the others?”

“Of course.”

The rest of the day passes relatively uneventfully for both Keith and Lance.  They hang out with Hunk and Pidge in the caf during common hour.  Keith finds himself participating in the conversations more than usual, but he can’t say he’s upset by it.  He also finds himself completely captivated by Lance, hanging on to every word the other boy says, everything he does. 

If he wasn’t so infatuated, he probably would have been embarrassed.

Eventually, though, the day comes to a close and it’s time for them to return to their apartment.  Keith plays his music again, and this time, instead of singing along to what he knows, Lance just blathers on about his day.  Keith doesn’t mind.  As much as he enjoys hearing Lance sing, he’s also willing to listen to his friend talk about anything and everything.

“I’ll see you later, okay?” Lance says as he and Keith clamber out of the car and head to their separate apartments. 

“See you,” Keith replies, smiling.

Lance grins, pleased that he’s been getting more and more smiles from the boy with the black hair and violet eyes. 

He makes his way back to his apartment, humming quietly to himself as he wonders what exactly Hunk has cooked up for dinner.

Lance didn’t know Hunk before college, but he’s glad that they were randomly paired together as roommates last year.  He had been worried that his first roommate was going to be some sort of sex or drug crazed weirdo who partied a lot, but instead he got Hunk, one of the sweetest and smartest people on this planet, who also just happened to be the best damn cook Lance could think of (besides his mother.  _Mam_ _á_ didn’t count, though). 

His key sticks in the lock like always, so after some wiggling and muttered Spanish curses, he gets the door open.  “Hey, Hunk,” he calls since he doesn’t see the other boy in the living room or kitchen. 

He hears a “hi, Lance!” from back in Hunk’s room. 

“Got anything planned for dinner?”

“Well, I checked the fridge, and we have plenty of rice and chicken and some vegetables, so I was figuring some coconut rice with the rest thrown in.  Does that sound okay?” Hunk asks as he emerges from his room and meets Lance in the living room.

“Yeah, that sounds perfect.”

As Hunk gets to work on dinner, Lance sits on one of the couches in front of the TV, lazily working on notecards from his orgo lesson that day. 

His mind, however, strays to Keith.

Today was interesting, to say the least.

All day, Lance hasn’t been able to ignore the way Keith was looking at him this morning while he sang.  It’s not like he isn’t used to people staring, it’s that he isn’t used to _Keith_ staring.

Especially not with the expression he had.

It was sweet and affectionate.

Almost…almost like…

“Hunk?”

“What’s up, buddy?”

“Do you think…is there a chance…”  His voice trails off, unsure of how to phrase his words.

“I’m gonna need you to be more specific than that.”

“Do you think that maybe Keith likes me?” Lance blurts.

“What brought this on?”

“Well, he’s liked boys before, and-and, he was, well…when I was singing earlier he just got this _look_ on his face, Hunk.  I hadn’t seen it before, at least, not on him.  There have been _plenty_ of people who have liked me before, so I recognized it.  I just…didn’t expect it from him,” Lance explains.

“Maybe he does,” Hunk says with a shrug. 

“That is _not_ helpful.”

“Well, if he does like you, is that a bad thing?”

Lance pauses at that.

Is it?

“I mean, there’s nothing wrong with boys liking me, Hunk.  We both know that.  I don’t think I’ve been exactly subtle about the fact that both boys and girls are cute as hell.  I just…I don’t know.  I don’t think I expected it, considering how he used to act around me.”

“Feelings change,” Hunk says simply.

“I guess.”

“Just wait it out, dude.  Don’t try to force anything, or look for things that aren’t there.  Just hang out with Keith, be his friend.  If something happens, it happens.”

“Whoa, I never said that I _wanted_ anything to happen, _or_ that I even like Keith back!”

Hunk turns, ignoring his cooking for a moment to give Lance a ‘sure thing, buddy’ look.  “Lance, please.”

“What does that mean?”  Lance feels his face flush.

“Pidge and I were talking, and it’s pretty obvious that, even if you don’t realize it, you’re comfortable around Keith.  You two have been hanging out a lot in the past couple of weeks, and it’s been doing a lot of good for you both.  Keith’s been less broody, and he’s been talking to the rest of us more.”  He shrugs.  “But what do I know?”

“Don’t give me that shit,” Lance grumbles.  But he does have to admit that he’s been more comfortable around Keith, even if he’s been attributing it to that fact that _Keith_ is more comfortable about _him_.  He sighs.  “I…I’d say that it’s too early to decide if Keith and I like each other,” he says.  “We’ve only been here almost three weeks.  I’ll keep hanging out with him, keep being his friend, and then I’ll decide.  I’m not gonna make any moves or do anything until I feel comfortable and know for sure.”

“Whatever floats your boat, dude,” Hunk replies, his attention back on his cooking. 

Dinner is finished soon, but Lance just kinda picks through his food with his chopsticks, moving the vegetables around in his bowl, suddenly not as hungry as he had been.

“It’s still bugging you?” Hunk asks.

Lance nods.  “Yeah.  It’s just…Hunk, I’m not entirely sure what to do.  If this doesn’t go well and I’m reading too much into it, will it ruin the campaign?  Our characters are best friends, and I don’t want to make things awkward for the rest of you.”

“We can handle ourselves, Lance.  Just focus on your friendship for right now, okay?”

“Okay.”  Lance nibbles at his food.  He does love Hunk’s coconut rice, and the chicken and veggies taste delicious. 

Of course, Lance being Lance, he doesn’t stop worrying.  Even after he goes to bed, he lays awake, playing scenario after scenario in his brain.  Ones where things work out and he kisses Keith, lips tracing everywhere, little marks left as reminders.  Others where nothing goes well and their friend group is split. 

He decides he’ll go snorkeling in the morning.  His professor offered extra credit for specimens, and it always calms him down and clears his head, anyways.

 

 

Keith pulls his long hair up and pushes his bangs back with a sweatband.  His muscle shirt is just tight enough against his chest, and his shorts are just loose enough against his legs.  He laces up his shoes and grabs a water bottle from the fridge, readying himself for a run.

He hopes he’s early enough to avoid the other occupants of his apartment and the building as well.

Running always helps him sort out his thoughts, and, after everything that had happened yesterday, he knows he needs it. 

He does his stretches in the parking lot, humming to himself as he listens to his “chill” playlist. 

But then there’s a loud crash as something takes a tumble down the stairs, followed by some quiet (but harsh) words in Spanish.

Keith groans internally.

What is Lance doing awake this early on a Saturday?

His question is answered when he sees Lance finish descending the stairs, dressed in royal blue swim trunks and a t-shirt, a bag slung over his shoulder and a few various beach related items in his arms. 

Lance stops abruptly as he notices Keith.  “What are you doing up right now?” he asks, almost accusingly. 

“I could ask the same of you,” Keith answers calmly.  “I’m going on a run.  What about you?”

“I was gonna go snorkeling,” Lance replies.  “I’m leaving early because it’s about a thirty minute drive to the island that I like diving at, and I don’t want to miss too much of the day there.”

“I’ve never been snorkeling before,” Keith says.

“Do you want to go with me?” Lance blurts.  “I-I mean, I have another bag of stuff in my closet, I can go get it.”

“I mean, uh, it’d be more eventful than running, probably,” Keith says.  “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I am,” Lance says.  And he’s sure he is.  “Do you have a swim suit with you, or do you need to borrow one of mine?”

“I’ve got one.  Meet back out here in a few minutes?”

Lance nods.  “Sure thing.”

After stowing his equipment in the trunk of his car, Lance rushes back to his room and (after fumbling with the lock like always), grabs his extra set for Keith. 

He beats Keith back to the parking lot, so he just leans against his car as he waits. 

Eventually, Keith reemerges.  “I was adding another song onto the playlist really quick,” he says.  “It’s appropriate for going to the beach.”

“What makes you think that you’re gonna be choosing the music?” Lance teases.

“Because you chose it for two days, so now it’s my turn.  Yesterday was my first day, so it makes sense that I choose today, too.”

Lance chuckles, but doesn’t argue, instead opting to just climb into the car and get things moving.  He’s already lost a little bit of time he wasn’t expecting to lose. 

Keith plugs his phone in, and some hippie song starts playing.  Lance misses some of the lyrics, but he understands that the gist of the song is about going to the beach with your friends and just having a good time.  He smiles, thinks it’s sweet that Keith thought of that.

The next song sounds familiar to Lance.  Not so much the lyrics, but the sound and the singer’s voice.  “Who is this?” he asks.

“Oh, it’s from Walk the Moon’s new album.  It’s called ‘One Foot,’” Keith says.

“The guys who did ‘Shut Up and Dance?’” Lance asks.

“The very same.”

“I like it,” Lance says.

By the middle of the song, Lance is singing along, “taking this one step at a time, I’ve got your back, if you’ve got mine, oh! one foot in front of the other!”  As it ends, he glances at Keith.  “You’ve got pretty good taste in music, Mullet.”

“It’s hard to take you seriously when you call me that,” Keith retorts.

“Psh, it’s affectionate.  Like a friend pet name or something.”  A friend pet name?  Lance groans internally.  What a dumb thing to say.

“Mhm, I’m sure,” Keith responds sarcastically.

Lance huffs, but doesn’t say anything else on the topic.  “You say you’ve never been snorkeling before?”

“Right.”

“Do you know anything about it?”

“You can look at cool things underwater for a long period of time.”

“Well, yeah, that’s true.  But do you know about the equipment?  Like the mask, fins, the actual snorkel?”

Keith shakes his head.  “The snorkel helps you breath underwater, but I’ve never actually used one.”

“Not even in the pool as a kid?”

“Nope.”

“Weird.”

“Please stop judging my childhood, Lance.”

“Sorry.”  Lance grins sheepishly.  “Anyways, in the bag there’s a mask, a snorkel, and some fins.  The fins will fit you just fine because they’re a one-size-fits-all sort of deal.  You can adjust the mask and the snorkel.  The mask has a thing to cover your nose that way you don’t get ocean water up in your sinuses on accident.  Trust me, it can happen.  I can tell you more about it when we get there.”

It doesn’t take much longer for them to reach the island. They cross a pretty long bridge to get to it, but Keith stares out the window, absolutely fascinated.  Even though he’s a sophomore, he never really leaves campus for much of anything, except maybe to get food. 

He didn’t know that water could be so _blue_.

He also decides that the ocean is definitely where Lance belongs.  The other boy seems to get more and more energized the closer they get to the island. 

When the make it to the beach, Lance looks like he’s going to burst at the seams. 

“It’s no Cuba, but it’s still good,” Lance says as he parks his car. 

“What’s different?”

“No coral reefs.  Back home, there are plenty of reefs, but it’s too far north here and the waters get too cold to sustain them.”

“How often do you go snorkeling in Cuba?”

“Oh, all the time!  I mean, I went more as a kid because we lived there, but I drag my cousins and my siblings with me when we go back every summer.”

“You lived there?  I thought it was just where your parents are from.”

Lance nods.  “Yep.  Lived there until I was nine.  That’s when my parents decided to move here because they thought it would help the five of us be able to get into good colleges here in the states.  Give us plenty of time to become natural citizens and stuff.”

“That’s…that’s really thoughtful of them,” Keith says sadly. 

“C’mon, let’s get going,” Lance says, grabbing Keith by the wrist and dragging him to the shore.

“What do you think we’re gonna see?”

Lance shrugs.  “Probably not too much?  We’ll definitely see some shellfish and mollusks, but I also hope we see some sea stars and maybe a ray.  Oh!  A ctenophore would be super cool.”

“I think I knew what, like, two of those things were.”

“Ctenophores are like jellyfish in the sense that they’re squishy and super easy to accidentally kill by picking them up.”

“Bad experience?”

“Bad experience.  _Anyways_ , let’s get started.”  Lance drops his bag on the sand, plopping down next to it.  He opens it and pulls out a mask, flippers, and a snorkel before gesturing for Keith to do the same.  Lance goes on to explain what each piece of equipment is for and how to use it.  He tightens the straps on Keith’s mask to make sure that no water leaks into it.  “Ready?”

“Ready.”

After stripping off his t-shirt, Lance leads Keith into the water.  They swim out until they’re in water that’s about five feet deep.  “Now that we’re here, you’re gonna want to put your flippers on.  For me, they’ve always stayed better when I put them on while they were wet.”  Lance takes the snorkel that’s attached to his mask (Keith’s isn’t as good, he’s holding his snorkel in his hand) and holds it up to his mouth.  “So, what you want to do with this is bite down on the mouthpiece, and then wrap your lips around it to make sort of an airtight seal.  But you’re gonna want to do that after we’ve submerged.”  With a wave to Keith, he sinks below the water, only the top of his snorkel sticking out.

“I thought you were supposed to swim on your stomach,” Keith says to no one in particular.  But nonetheless he slips under the water and bites his snorkel the way Lance told him to. 

Lance has swum down a little further to the bottom, sitting crisscross applesauce, a sea star in his hand.

Keith’s eyes grow wide and he takes a deep breath before swimming closer to Lance.  Lance hands the animal to Keith.  Honestly, Keith isn’t sure how Lance noticed this thing because it’s the same color as the sand around them.  But he isn’t complaining, instead turning the sea star over in his hands, taking in every detail. 

Eventually, of course, his lungs start to burn, so he gestures to Lance and the two of them return to the surface.  After clearing the water from his snorkel, Keith speaks up, “that was so cool!  What else do you think we can find?”

“It was just a sea star, Keith,” Lance replies, laughing.  “That was about all I saw down there.”

“Should we move further down shore to see if there’s anything else?”

“We can snorkel our way there,” Lance says.  He grins, grabbing Keith’s wrist again and pulling the other boy along.

They’re a little below the surface, fins lazily kicking behind them when Keith realizes it.

Lance is still holding his wrist.

He hasn’t let go.

Interesting. 

Keith slowly but surely wiggles his hand so that Lance is no longer holding his wrist but his hand. 

Lance still doesn’t let go, but Keith also can’t be sure that he even noticed. 

Keith thinks he’d smile, but it’s hard with his mouth around the snorkel. 

Lance must have spotted something because the next thing he knows Keith is being dragged down deeper into the water. 

Keith manages to get at least a little bit of air into his lungs before water fills his snorkel.

Lance, still holding Keith’s hand, points excitedly with his other one.  There’s something crawling along the sand.  Keith thinks it’s a lobster, but he honestly has no idea.

Grabbing it with his free hand, Lance holds it up to Keith, eyes bright and shining. 

After a second, though, his eyes grow really wide and he drops Keith’s hand, legs propelling him quickly back to the surface.

When Keith reaches him, Lance is still coughing.

“Did you swallow some water?”

Lance nods, unable to reply. 

“Do you need any help?”

He shakes his head.  Instead, he just holds up the lobster, grinning through his coughs.

“Yeah, I know, you dragged me down with you to catch it.”

“Sorry,” Lance says, his voice a little hoarse from coughing.  “I didn’t mean to.”

“I didn’t mind,” Keith replies.  He hopes that Lance notices the undertones to his comment. 

Lance hands the lobster to Keith.  “Isn’t it cool?”

“Yeah, super cool.”

Lance blathers on about the lobster a little bit, giving Keith the common name and where it usually lives.  Keith sort of pays attention, but he’s also way more concerned with the fact that he and Lance held hands.

“Wanna go look for more?” Lance asks, extending his hand.

“Sure,” Keith answers, grabbing Lance’s hand and trying not to blush. 

So they go snorkeling.  Lance finds a couple more cool things, including one of those ctenophores that he mentioned earlier.  Keith now understands what Lance meant when he said that they look a lot like jellyfish.  Eventually, though, they both tire from diving and using their legs so much, and pull themselves back onto shore.

“That was so much fun,” Keith says, relatively breathless as he splays himself over the towel he laid out earlier. 

“I’m glad you had a good time,” Lance says.  He smiles and then reaches out to push a lock of Keith’s hair from his eyes.  “Why is your hair so long?”

“I don’t feel like getting it cut.”  Keith shrugs.  He’s never really seen a point in cutting his hair until it got annoying.

“Okay.”

Keith closes his eyes, wishing he’d brought a snack.  But he’s also thinking about the fact that he and Lance held hands.  Twice.  The second time being totally willingly. 

He ponders how to bring it up.

But, in the end, he doesn’t have to.

“So, don’t think I didn’t notice your little trick,” Lance says, causing Keith to open one eye.

“Hm?”

“When we were swimming earlier.  You sort of shimmied your arm until we were holding hands,” Lance explains.  He has a sort of aloofness to his tone that Keith identifies as nervousness.

Why would Lance be nervous?

Is it because he didn’t want to hold Keith’s hand?

“Well, you didn’t let go,” Keith says.  “And then you offered later.”

“Um, well, yeah,” Lance says lamely, a light blush dusting his cheeks. 

“Was it okay?” Keith asks.

“Huh?”

“The hand holding.  Was it okay?”

Lance is silent for a long time, the gears in his head turning.

In fact, he’s quiet for so long that Keith opens his mouth to say, “okay, it wasn’t.  I’m sorry.  It won’t happen again,” when Lance simply says, “yes.”

“Wait, really?” Keith asks, completely and totally incredulous.

“Yeah.”  That soft and sweet smile that Keith can’t get enough of is back on Lance’s lips.  “Yeah, Keith, it was okay.”

“Cool.”

Lance gropes around his bag, searching for something.  Upon finding his cell phone, he holds it up to his face to check the time.  “It’s a little after noon, so we should probably get going and grab some lunch.”  He stands and stretches his legs just a little bit, hoping to avoid stiff and aching muscles in the morning.  He extends a hand to Keith.  “Need any help?”

Keith most definitely does not need any help standing up, but he accepts Lance’s hand anyways because it’s an excuse to hold hands again, even if just for a moment.  They gather their things, Lance finishing before Keith.  But he waits, watching Keith make sure everything is stuffed into the bag Lance leant him.

“Ready?” Lance asks. 

“Yeah,” Keith says. 

They start on the way back to the car.  At first, Keith is holding onto the straps of his bag with both hands.  That is, until another hand snakes its way around one of his and pulls it down so that it’s easier to hold.  Keith smiles softly, trying to focus on anything other than the warmth of Lance’s hand in his own, the easy way their arms swing between them.

Lance talks and talks about the animals they saw today, suggests maybe renting a boat and going out a little further to see what they find next time.

“Next time?”

Lance blushes.  “Well, um, yeah.  I figured since we had such a good time today, you might want to come back and do this again.”

“I’d love to,” Keith replies.  “Maybe we could even convince the others to come with us.”  He adds this part because he wants to be sure Lance has an out, wants to be sure nothing gets too awkward.

“We can always go a couple more times before we invite anybody else.”

“Just the two of us?”

“Yeah!  Th-that is, unless you’d rather other people be here.”

“No, just the two of us is perfect,” Keith says quickly (hopefully not too quickly.  He doesn’t want to sound desperate). 

“Cool.”  Lance grins before (reluctantly) letting go of Keith’s hand so that he can slide into the car and get to driving.  He doesn’t even complain when Keith’s playlist starts up and he doesn’t know the song. 

The drive itself is boring, and Lance only keeps one hand on the wheel.  The other hand he has resting on Keith’s thigh, fingers intertwined with Keith’s.  It’s an instinctive, almost reflexive action he does while driving, not really thinking about it.  Keith falls asleep about five minutes after they got off the island.  Sitting at this stoplight, Lance takes a moment to look at Keith.

His lips are slightly parted and his chest rises and falls slowly.  His black hair is stuck together in clumps at odd angles from the saltwater coating it.  His violet eyes are closed, but Lance can tell he’s dreaming about something from how they move behind his eyelids.  Keith’s skin is light, but his shoulders, nose, and the tips of his ears are pink from being in the sun all morning.  There’s even some drool pooling at the edges of his mouth.

He’s beautiful.

Lance feels his cheeks burn at the thought, but it’s true. 

Keith, despite looking kinda like a wreck from being outside, looks beautiful. 

Lance’s heart flutters, and he feels his stomach somersault.  “I’ve got it bad,” he murmurs to no one in particular.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like that tooth-rotting fluff, my dudes because I sure did
> 
> also one time I was beach-combing with a friend in college and he tried to pick up a ctenophore and accidentally killed it. it was pretty rough
> 
> comments and kudos are always appreciated :D


	4. Chapter 4

“For the last time, Keith, yes, it _is_ possible to hold hands just as friends, but I really doubt that’s what Lance has been doing,” Shiro says. 

Keith is lying on the floor of their apartment, watching the ceiling fan slowly go around and around.  “Are you sure?”

“I just said that that was the last time I was answering your question,” Shiro reminds him.

“Sorry.”

“Honestly, Keith, why don’t you just ask Lance about it?” Allura asks.  “It seems like talking this through would help the both of you.”

Keith fidgets, uncomfortable.  He’s never been good at talking out his problems.  It’s not that he doesn’t like to or doesn’t want to; it’s more that he has trouble saying what he means and usually ends up getting frustrated that he can’t get his point across.  He lashes out in anger more often than actually solving anything.  “How would I?”

“With your words.”

“I need you to be more specific than that, Allura.  You know I’m no good at conversations.”

“I’m aware, but Shiro and I won’t always be there to walk you through every interaction, Keith.  We can give you a few pointers, but this is definitely something you’re going to have to do on your own.”

Keith frowns.  While it may be the answer he needs to hear, it isn’t the one he wants to hear.  “I guess.”

“It’s been a week since you first held hands, correct?” Allura asks.  Keith nods.  “And you’re both still comfortable and it doesn’t feel strange?”  Another nod.  Allura smiles kindly and it highlights her beautiful features (even though Keith isn’t really attracted to girls, he can see why his big brother is so head over heels for his girlfriend). “Then it’s okay, Keith,” she tells him softly.  “You can do this.”

“Let’s worry about it later, okay?  Right now we should be heading to Pidge and Matt’s because it’s almost time for D&D,” Shiro says.  He extends a hand to Keith, hauling his little brother off the floor.  “It’s gonna be okay, Keith.”  Shiro ruffles Keith’s black hair.

The setup at Pidge and Matt’s place is the same again; a long table with chairs and a couch on either side. 

“We definitely didn’t try and put everything back after the last session,” Pidge says.  “It was way too much work to get all this here in the first place.”

“How do you fit in your room?” Lance asks, thinking about how small the second bedroom and how big the other furniture is.

“Very carefully.”

There’s a little more ambient conversation between the friends; about their classes, internships, the usual college kid talk.

“Does everyone remember where we left off, or would you guys like a recap?” Pidge asks, drawing everyone into the game.

“Recap, please!”

“You didn’t even do that much.”

“Yeah, but I’ve slept since we played this last, so I remember very few things,” Lance says.

Pidge glowers at Lance.  “Fine.  So, you were all sitting in the tavern getting to know each other with Laurens Hill came in and asked you to help defeat some goblins that were harassing his farm.  You beat the goblins, and now we’re here.  Ready?”

Pidge sets their figurines on the grid that she has laid out.  “Laurens thanks you guys for killing the goblins and offers to let all of you stay in his farmhouse for the night.”

“Aw, that’s so nice of him.  I raise my hand for a high five,” Lance says.

“He looks at your kind of strangely, but he high fives you nonetheless,” Pidge describes tiredly.  “We should go back to town in the morning and talk to the mayor because, well, because I feel like you guys could really solve our goblin problem.”  Pidge looks to each person.  “He leads you into his house and makes sure all of you are settled.  Got any questions for him or each other before you turn in for the night?”

“Yeah, how long have the goblins been here?” Lance asks in that dopey voice he uses for Aien. 

“A couple of weeks.”

“How many people have they killed?” Keith asks next.  He wants to be part of the conversation, too.

“Well, we actually aren’t sure about that.  Far as I know, they _haven’t_ killed anybody.  Or, if they have, it’s never been here.  They normally just kidnap their victims and then we never see them again,” Pidge explains.  “Thankfully, it’s just me who lives here right now since my family is out on business, so I was able to slip away and find Levi before the goblins captured me.  Once again, thank you very kindly for your help.  And, as he says that, Levi looks down, almost in a guilty way.”

“Wait a second, they don’t kill these people?” Allura interrupts.  She knits her brows together, obviously concerned.  “That can’t be good.”

“What do you have in mind, Allura?” Shiro asks.

“Well, you should actually concern yourself with what _Elisys_ has mind, darling,” she corrects. 

“What are you going for, Allura?” Pidge asks.  “I’m wondering so I can know if I should have you do a skill check.”

“I was wondering if they could be taking the people away for some sort of ritual,” Allura says.

Pidge chews on her lower lip, thinking.  “I’m actually gonna say that you can’t do much other than speculate about that right now.  You can’t draw any conclusions until you get more information, so there’s no need to roll a check because I won’t give you a straight answer.”

Allura pouts.  “I suppose that makes sense.”

“Anything else?”

“Levi places a hand on Laurens’ shoulder and smiles at him.  Thanks for everything, bud,” Hunk says.

“Oh, goodness no, thank _you_ , Levi.  You and your friends here saved me from a world of trouble.”  Pidge clears her throat.  “And on that note, I’m cutting it on questions and saying that all of you go to bed.  Laurens wakes you up in the morning, provides a hearty breakfast, and then gets you on your way back to town.  Once you reach the town, he leads you towards one of the bigger buildings that the town contains.  He knocks on the door and quietly says something that the rest of you can’t hear to the person who answers the door.  All of you are let in and then showed through the building to a room in the back.”

As Pidge goes on to describe the mayor, Lance finds himself having trouble paying attention.  “There’s so much talking in this game,” he whispers to Keith, who is sitting next to him.

“Well, if there wasn’t we wouldn’t know what was going on,” Keith replies.  “Now hush up and listen.”

Lance groans quietly and lays his head on the back of the couch.  He looks towards Keith.  “Okay.”

“Now that Lance is done complaining, the mayor goes on.  The goblins have always been coming from the east of the town.  Now, it’s common knowledge that there are plenty of caves over in that area, so it makes sense that they could have set up camp there.  And, as I’m sure Laurens here has told you, to our knowledge the people the goblins took aren’t dead.  So, if you just so happen to see them there, it would be real nice of you to bring them back.  Do the six of you mind doing this?”

“Levi speaks up first,” Hunk says.  “He smiles at the mayor.  Of course we don’t mind doing this, sir.  Me, especially.  This place has been my home, so it’s my job to defend it.”

“Everyone else?”

There’s a clamor of agreement to help the townsfolk. 

“Does this mean we can’t steal from them?” Lance asks Keith.

“I mean, I think that we can.  They owe us for protecting them.”

“Good point.”

“Before you go, Laurens takes Levi aside and whispers something in his ear.  Hunk, I’ll text it to you so the others don’t know what it is.”  Pidge pulls out her phone and types up a quick message to Hunk.  “Okay, so let’s get started!” Pidge says.  “Can we decide a marching order?”

After some discussion, it’s decided that Hunk will go first (since he can take a hit), followed by Allura, Matt, Lance, Keith, and then Shiro. 

“All right, I want everyone to roll a stealth check.  It’ll be a d20 plus your stealth skill modifier.”

Everyone’s rolls seem pretty decent, except for Matt, who gets a six.  He groans.  “I’m not even going to pretend that that’s a good enough roll.  What happens?”

“Well, as the rest of you, like, blend into the forest and become one with the trees or some shit, Baldrouc is, like, singing the _Mission Impossible_ theme as he dodge rolls from tree to tree.  Which, of course, is ridiculously loud because he’s off-key and his armor is bulky.”

“Aien’s personally offended by his bad singing.”

“Good to know,” Matt says with a scowl.  “Don’t worry, after this, you’ll be doing _all_ the singing.”

“The point is, since Baldrouc was so bad at sneaking, the six of you disturb three goblin scouts who attack you.  Roll for initiative,” Pidge interrupts.

Lance groans again.  “I hate combat.”

After the initiative rolls the order is decided: Aien, one goblin, Baldrouc, Wells, Rolxus, the second goblin, the last goblin, Levi, and Elisys. 

“I’m gonna inspire Wells with my bonus action,” Lance says.  “Basically, he can add the roll from a d6 to his attack roll on his turn.  With my regular action, I’m gonna attack with my crossbow.  And…that’s a fourteen.”

“It hits.”

“Lit, so now he does…oh _baby_ that does seven fucking damage.”

“Okay, so, Aien nocks a bolt into his crossbow, takes aim, and fires.  The bolt goes through the goblin’s throat.  He makes a kind of gurgling noise as he just reaches up to his throat with a surprised look on his face before he falls over dead.”

“Get on my level,” Lance crows.  “I’ve insta-killed everything I’ve hit so far this campaign.”

“Don’t get too cocky,” Keith says. 

As the battle goes on, Lance, once again, gets fidgety.  He feels a little bored not doing anything, his fingers drumming on his leg, tapping out to the beat of a song.  It doesn’t take long before another hand is grabbing his, intertwining their fingers, thumb rubbing circles.  Lance peeks at Keith, but Keith is still taking his turn, rolling his dice with his right hand and telling Pidge the results. 

But he’s also definitely holding Lance’s hand.

Lance does his best to repress a smile.  It’s sweet, this gesture.  It means Keith’s noticing Lance’s tics. 

“Well, that didn’t take long at all,” Pidge says.  “You guys decimated those goblins.”

“It’s what we do,” Shiro says.  “Y’know, kill things.”

“Very articulate, dear,” Allura says. 

“What’s next?” Hunk asks, eager to get to the heart of the campaign.

“After some more walking, this bunch much more uneventful than the beginning, you reach the cave systems,” Pidge says.

“Do we see anything?” Keith asks.

“Roll a perception check.”

“And that’s a nat fucking twenty plus four!” 

“Well shit, Keith.  You see a lot.  Like, you see so much that your brain explodes and you die.  Just kidding.  Anyways, you notice that most of the caves are either blocked off or they look like no one has been in or near them for a long time.  Except for one cave.  The grass around it is trampled down, and it just looks like people have been coming and going from it.”

“All right, boy-os, looks like that cave is where we’re headed.”

Pidge leans over her DM screen, picking up all the figurines and turning over the paper they’re on to reveal part of a cave system (the rest is covered up).  “So, as all of you can see, the cave opens with a small room.  The only exits you find are the one behind you to the outdoors, and one directly in front of you that leads deeper into the cave.”

“Let’s go that way,” Matt says.  “There’s no point in drawing this out with deliberations and conversation.”

“But Matt, how else am I going to say super stupid shit?” Lance whines.

“I’m sure you’ll find a way,” Matt replies drily, rolling his eyes. 

“Okay, so you start on your way,” Pidge says.  Still leaning over the screen, she moves the paper covering the map back, showing the tunnel.

“Can we go in that little room?” Allura asks. 

“Of course.”

“Wait, let me check the door for traps and see if it’s locked,” Keith says.  “What should I roll for that?”

“Uh, probably investigation?” Pidge says, though she doesn’t sound very sure. 

“That is a solid six.”

“Did you add your modifiers?”

“…yes.”

“Oooh, that’s rough, buddy,” Shiro says. 

“I know,” Keith replies. 

“Well, Keith, you walk up to the door, stare at it for a second, before turning around and grinning at your companions.  You tell them that it sure is a door in front of you.”

Keith scowls, displeased.  Lance squeezes his hand to reassure him.  Keith’s expression lightens and he squeezes back.

“Can’t wait to take some trap damage,” Keith grumbles.  “I go up to the door and try to open it.”

“And, oh no!  There was a super deadly trap on it and it activates and kills every single one of you.  Honestly, Keith, is that what you expected?  These are goblins.  _Goblins_.  I’m pretty sure they couldn’t set up a trap without killing themselves in the process.  The door also opens up wide, unlocked.  Like I said, goblins are pretty fucking dumb.”

Keith grumbles something under his breath.

“So, what’s in the room?” Shiro asks, trying to prevent any further argument.

“You see some boxes in front of you.”

“I’m looting through them immediately,” Lance says.  “What do I find?”

“There’s a bunch of simple daggers and short swords that you see, but there are a few more… _interesting_ items that catch Aien’s eyes.  There are a couple of rings that you grab, along with a sword and some brass knuckles.”

“I want those brass knuckles,” Shiro says before anyone else even finishes registering what Pidge said. 

“Okay, okay, Aien hands them to Wells.  I was thinking they were for you, anyways, buddy,” Lance says.  “Can you tell us about the sword and the rings now?”

“So, one of the rings is a Ring of Haste.  Once per day, you can cast the spell haste on yourself.  The other one is an Apprentice Ring of Blasting, and what that does is it causes an offensive, ranged cantrip to explode in a five meter radius and then do an extra three points of damage.  Who wants those?”

“I’m keeping the Ring of Haste,” Lance says.  “But, uh, I think Allura could do a lot of good with the exploding one.  So, Aien hands that to Elisys.”

“The sword is definitely something that I didn’t make up because I could find anything that I liked.  Anyways, it’s called the Star Sword.  It does a normal 1d8 of damage, and if you hit it does an extra three points of radiant damage,” Pidge explains.

“Is, uh, is it okay if I take that?” Hunk asks, a little timid. 

“You’re probably the only one who can wield it,” Allura says.  “So, I see no problem with giving it to Levi.”

“Yeah, of course you can have it, buddy,” Lance says.  He smiles at Hunk.  “I wouldn’t want anybody else to have it.”

“That’s out of character, right Lance?” Pidge asks.  “Because, uh, I don’t think that Aien would be saying that to Levi.”

“Right.”  Lance grins, face reddening just a bit.

“Do we find anything else?” Matt asks.  He’s a little bit more eager to get back to the campaign than the others, who are more content with just messing around.

Pidge shakes her head.  “Not that you guys don’t already have.”

“Okay, so let’s get moving.  The hallway kept going, so let’s go that way.” Matt says.

“You abandon the armory and head back into the hallway, further away from the entrance.”  Pidge moves their characters and reveals more of the map.  “And, lucky for all of you, you happen upon a room that has four goblin guards.  They’re mulling around, but once they see you appear they jump to attention and draw their weapons.  Roll for initiative.”

“Pidge, why do we have to fight so often?” Lance whines.

“Because I said so,” Pidge replies.  “Ready?”

Keith startles when he feels a slight weight on his shoulder.  It’s Lance’s head.  He tries to breathe evenly, glances between each other person in the room.  It seems no one has noticed this small display of affection and, even if they have, no one finds it important enough to comment on.

Keith relaxes just a little.

Other than the fact that Allura almost dies, the battle passes about as easily as all the others.  Matt manages to bring her back from the edge.

“You guys are getting really good at this,” Pidge notes, proud of her friends.  “But that also means I’m going to have to start making these battles harder.”

“Now don’t feel like you have to do that,” Hunk says.  “I don’t mind easy battles.”

“Yeah, but it’s no fun for me if you guys quickly go through everything I throw at you,” Pidge retorts, sticking her tongue out at Hunk.  “I want to have fun too.”

“Can I search the room?” Keith asks.

“Go ahead.”

“Fifteen.”

“You see that there used to be three ways out of this room, but there’s only two now.  The third has been completely caved in.  You assume that that’s probably what connected this small section of gave to the larger tunnel system around here.  Other than that, there isn’t much of interest in this room.”

“Let’s get going,” Shiro says.  “Which tunnel do we want to check first?”

“How about the one that’s right in front of us?” Allura suggests.  “The one that’s right past the cave in?”

“You get about five steps into that hall before you see that it’s also caved in at the end, cutting off access to wherever it used to lead.”

“Okay, back to that other tunnel,” Lance quips.  “Let’s get going.”

“When you come back into that room where you just fought the four goblins, you see another goblin in the room.  This one, however, is different than the others.  He doesn’t have his weapons raised, and he seems like he’s waiting for you.”

“I wave hi to him,” Lance says.

The others groan. 

“The goblin kinda squints at you for a second after he sees you wave.”  Pidge clears her throat, grimacing.  “Drezz want talk to you,” Pidge says.

Everyone else bursts into laughter.

“You sound like a fucking _gremlin_ , Pidge,” Lance says.

“Who knew my little sister was such a talented voice actress?”

“I fucking hate all of you,” Pidge grumbles.  “I’m gonna stop doing voices if this is the bullshit I’m met with each time.”

“Aw, c’mon, Pidge, you know they’re just kidding.  We all appreciate the voices you do,” Hunk tells her.  He smiles kindly and her annoyance fades.

“All right, all right,” she concedes.  “But I’m going to have to do that voice again and you guys had better hold your laughs in.”

“Of course we will,” Allura assures her.  “Go ahead.”

Pidge sighs.  “You follow me.  Drezz want talk.”

“Drezz?”

“No ask questions!  Follow.”

“We should probably go with him,” Lance says.

“All right.  You guys follow this goblin until you reach an antechamber.  There you see seven other goblins besides the one that led you in, and another pretty tall creature that kind of looks like what would happen if you mixed a hyena with a bear.  It’s called a gnoll.  It’s obvious from the atmosphere in the room that the gnoll is the one calling the shots.  No, Lance, you really shouldn’t wave hi to him too, so I’m just gonna stop you there,” she adds.  She places the figurines on her map; the gnoll in the middle with four goblins on either side of him.

Lance pouts.

“Wells steps forward—”

“The gnoll brandishes a hand axe at you,” Pidge says before Shiro can finish his movement.  “He bares his teeth.  Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you.”

“Well, we easily killed your other goblin guards, so I’d be scared of us if I were you,” Lance says. 

“Lance, I’m gonna need you to roll a persuasion check on that.”

Lance rolls his d20.  His jaw drops as the die lands on a natural twenty.  “Holy _shit_ , this guy had better grovel at my feet and believe every word I say.”

“Yeah, okay, the gnoll lowers his axe and nods.  That’s a good point.  You guys decimated all of my guards no problem, so maybe fighting isn’t the best idea.  At this point he kind of shifts a little awkwardly, tosses his axe back and forth between his hands.  So, uh, w-what do we do instead?”

“What are you doing here?  I mean, like, why are you taking the villagers?”

“Oh, that’s because some nice gnome lady said she’d pay us if we did.  Didn’t really give us a reason why, but her money’s good so I’m not that worried.  She just told us to keep the villagers here, and that she’d come pick them up when we sent word.  Anything else?”

“Do you know where she is?”

“Drezz shrugs.  He makes it seem like that isn’t an important detail for him.  She always comes from the woods to the east.  That it?”

“Give us a second?” Lance says.  “Okay, guys, we gotta huddle up here real quick.  Also while we’re huddling everyone needs to be talking in their character voices to make it more authentic.  If I can do it even though my voice cracks every goddamned time, so can the rest of you.”  Everyone nods in understanding.  “Well, boy-os and girl-o, what do we want to do?”

“I vote that we kill them,” Shiro says.  “What?  They’ll just continue to cause problems if we leave them alive.”

“I think he’s right.  These goblins have been harassing my village and taking my friends; I don’t want it to keep happening,” Hunk adds.  “They’re causing a problem and we can take care of it.”

“Yeah, but they aren’t fighting us right now,” Lance protests.

“That’s because, for some odd reason, that gnoll is listening to you.  If you had said something else, who knows?  We could be fighting them right now instead,” Allura says.  “I’m with Levi and Wells on this.”

“I’m always up for a good fight,” Matt says. 

“I’ll go with the rest of you,” Keith says.  He doesn’t care either way what happens, but he does know that they need to be in agreement on this.  “And so will Aien.”  He stares pointedly at Lance, who frowns at first but eventually nods.

“You guys done over there?” Pidge asks in her voice for Drezz.  “You’ve been talking for a while.”

Lance sighs.  “Are we sure about this?”  The others nod, confident in their choice.  “Well, Drezz, I’ve got some bad news.”

“Bad news?”

“Yeah, I just draw out my crossbow and shoot him with it,” Lance says, kind of sadly. 

“Well, since you’re surprising him I’ll give you advantage.”

“I got a fourteen.”

“Add two onto that.”

“Why?”  Lance is confused; he doesn’t have any modifiers that he can think of.

“Because I’m being nice, that’s why,” Pidge replies.

“Okay, so, uh, that’s a sixteen then.”

“All right, roll for damage.”

“Five.”

Pidge rubs her hands together, obviously excited that her friends chose to fight the gnoll and his goblin companions.  “After you shoot him, Drezz glares at you, Aien, with a betrayed look in his eyes.  I-I thought we were friends.  And then he rips the bolt from his shoulder and tells his goblins to attack.  Roll for initiative.” 

Lots of dice rolling ensues. 

“Okay, so it looks like the order is Elisys, Levi, two goblins, Wells, Drezz, Aien, two more goblins, Baldrouc, Rolxus, and the last four goblins.  Let’s see if you can knock any of them out and make this battle shorter,” Pidge says. 

“The spells I used against the goblins the other day are back, right?” Allura asks.  “Because we slept that night and regained everything.”

“Right.  So, you can use whichever one you want.”

“I’m going to use acid splash again,” Allura says.  “Are the goblins still grouped together on either side of the gnoll?”

“You betcha.”

“Good.  One of them has to make a dexterity save – I got a seventeen, by the way—”

“Well, he just got a twelve, so your spell hits.  How much damage?”

“Four!  And, since I have this Ring of Blasting, it does an extra three damage to him and also does three damage to the goblins standing around him.”  Allura grins triumphantly, pleased with herself.

“The goblin that you actually cast the spell on, like, starts fucking _screaming_ when your spell hits him.  He falls to the ground dead pretty quickly after the spell damages the other goblins around him.  Your turn, Hunk.”

“I got a fifteen.  I’m gonna attack one of the goblins that Allura’s already hit,” he says.  “Levi does, uh, one damage, but didn’t you say that is also does plus three radiant damage when it hits?  So that makes it four.”

“All right, that’s two goblins down,” Pidge tells them.  “I really do need to make these harder on you guys.  And, because I’m lazy, I’m gonna say that the two goblins you just killed were the ones that were supposed to go next.  Get going, Wells.”

“Well, actually, I rolled a seven, so I don’t think I hit anything,” Shiro says.

“Yeah, that’s a swing and a miss, my dude.  Now, it’s Drezz’s turn.  He looks between each of you, his eyes eventually landing on Levi.  While he isn’t the smartest creature, he gets a feeling that you were one of the people who convinced Aien to attack, even though there was a friendship blossoming between them.  What’s your AC, Hunk?”

“Fifteen.”

“Okay, yeah, he got an eighteen.  Drezz throws the axe in your direction and it hits you square in the chest, causing you to take eight points of damage.  A kind of weird thing happens, and the axe pulls itself from your chest and returns to Drezz’s hand.”

“Holy shit,” Hunk curses.

“Hunk!” Lance scolds.  “You never swear.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sitting at one hit point, so I think it’s as good a time as any to swear.”

“Sorry about that, Hunk.  Lance, what do you want to do?”

“Who goes after me?”

“Matt and then Keith,” Pidge says after glancing at the turn order in her notes. 

“Okay, I’m using my bonus action to inspire Keith.  I’d have used it on you, Matt, but I figured you’re gonna use your turn to heal.  Anyways, I’m gonna try to hit one of the goblins with my crossbow.  I got a sixteen, so that means he takes…six fucking damage!” 

“All right, that’s another goblin down.”

Pidge rolls for the goblin, but it gets a natural one and accidentally ends up hitting another goblin.

“I cure Hunk for six of his HP,” Matt says. 

“I’m going straight for Drezz,” Keith says.  “I got a seventeen and, since Lance’s sixteen hit, I’m gonna assume that I’m good.”  Keith rolls his d4 twice, grinning at the results.  “It’s six damage.”

“All right, your daggers sink into Drezz’s arms and he yells angrily.  He doesn’t look the best, but he’s definitely still standing and still able to attack.”

Only one of the last four goblins actually hits, but he does crit, and hits Baldrouc for six points of damage.

The fight continues. 

Elisys, once again, kills a goblin on contact with her spell and damages the ones around it.  Levi misses, much to Hunk’s chagrin.  This time around, Wells actually manages to hit something, taking three more hit points off Drezz.  Drezz tries to retaliate, but his attack misses.  Baldrouc hits a goblin for three more damage. 

Keith grins when Rolxus gets a nineteen on his attack roll.  “That’s nine damage.”

“That’s gonna be a killing blow, but I’m gonna let you decide how it happens.”

“Okay, so, Rolxus does this jump attack and he buries his daggers in Drezz’s chest.  Well, okay, he actually goes from underneath his ribs and thrusts up because that’s the best way to ensure that you kill someone when you stab them—”

“Keith, your nurse is showing,” Shiro says, smiling kindly at his brother.

“Oh, uh, sorry,” Keith apologizes, chagrined. 

“I appreciate the authenticity,” Allura says.

“At this point, the goblins that are left freeze and stare at Rolxus in fear.  Since, y’know, he just killed their damn leader,” Pidge says.  “They throw down their weapons and run out of the antechamber.”

“Just let them go,” Lance says before anyone else can even open their mouth.  “They don’t have anybody to tell them what to do, so they aren’t gonna be a problem.  There’s more for us here.  Can I loot Drezz’s body?”

“Yeah, of course you can.  You rifle through his pockets and find a note.  It says: Drezz, you know the drill.  Take the villagers from their homes and bring them _alive_ back to the cave.  I will collect them when you send word.  M.  Let me stress that again: _alive_.”

“I hope they haven’t sent word,” Hunk notes. 

“You also find a small dagger and his hand axe on him.  Want to take those?”

“Hell yeah, I do.  Aien tosses the dagger to Rolxus and hands the axe to Baldrouc.  He knows that they can use them better than he can.”

“Okay, cool.  Keith, the dagger than you have is a Dagger of Poison.  What it does is the last poison that it was covered with lasts indefinitely.  You can change the type of poison whenever, but you never have to worry about it not being poisoned.  As for you, Matt, that’s the hand axe that Drezz was using earlier.  It does a normal 1d6 damage, but if you throw it, it does another 1d6 and also returns to your hand after you throw it.”

“Shit, those are some good items, Pidge,” Keith says.  “You’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

Pidge shrugs.  “I just wanted to make sure that everybody got something that their character would want to use.”

“Well, you’re doing a great job, sis,” Matt tells her.  Pidge smiles widely in response, glowing from her big brother’s praise.

“Is there anything else around here that’s important?” Lance asks.

“There’s a door at the back of the room.”

“Aien leaves the others behind and rushes to the door.  He tries to open it.”

“It’s locked.”

“Rolxus!  I’ve got a lock that needs picking!”

Keith’s smile is slight.  “I’ve got you, buddy.” 

After some dice rolling, Keith manages to get the door unlocked. 

“Inside, you see about ten people.  Most of them have bags under their eyes and look a little worse for the wear.  A couple jump at you once the door opens, holding rocks in their hands as weapons.  They come to a stop, though, once they realize that Rolxus and Aien are not, in fact, goblins.  A human girl, probably about fifteen or so, lowers her rock and stares at the two of you.  Who are you?  How did you get here?”

“I, uh, my name’s Aien,” Lance says, grimacing internally at how many times his voice cracks on those few words. 

“I’ve got this, actually,” Hunk says.  “Levi pushes past Aien and Rolxus and picks the girl up and brings her in for a big hug.”

“Levi!” Pidge says.  “What are you doing here?”

“I told your brother that I would find you,” Hunk says simply.  “This is Laurens’ little sister Ella,” he tells the others.  “Sorry for, uh, for not telling you about her.  Laurens didn’t want to bother anybody else with her kidnapping.  We should probably get her and the others back to the town and then talk to them more there.  I think we’ve all had enough of this place.”

“Do the rest of you agree with Levi?” Pidge asks.

“Yeah, I don’t see why there’s any other reason for us to stay if we’ve cleared this place out,” Shiro says.  “Hunk has a good idea.”

“Okay, so you all head back to the town, keeping Ella and the other townsfolk safe the entire time.  I’m not that mean of a DM.  Do you want to bring Ella to Laurens first or head straight for the mayor’s?”

“I’ll drop by Laurens’ with Ella,” Hunk offers.  “The rest of you go on to meet the mayor and I’ll catch up with you there.”

“Hunk, you bring Ella back to Laurens and they both thank you more than you think that you’ve ever been thanked in your life.  You apologize for not being able to stay longer before meeting up with the others at the mayor’s office.  The mayor, unsurprisingly, is ecstatic to see all of you back in one piece and to hear that you have rescued the villagers that were kidnapped.  Thank you for all of your help.  We, uh, we don’t have much here in this town, but I’d like to offer you each one hundred gold pieces.  And, of course, you can shop here in town if you need anything.  I-I hope it isn’t too much of me to ask this, but do you think you could figure out who this gnome lady is?  Do you think you could maybe put a stop to her antics?”

“Of course we can,” Hunk says.  “This is Levi’s home.  He doesn’t want this happening again.”

“Aien looks to Rolxus.  We don’t have that much going on, do we?”

Keith shakes his head.  “We can help.”

“Baldrouc has really come to like Levi and fighting with him, so he definitely agrees to help.”

“I see you managed to avoid saying anything in your character voice,” Pidge notes.

“It’s a work in progress,” Matt retorts.

“Elisys nods.  She doesn’t have much else to do.”

“Wells agrees to help as well.”

“We owe all of you more than we could ever repay you,” Pidge says.  “All right, guys, you’ve finished the first part of the campaign!  And, thankfully, all of you actually agreed to continue on with the second part so I don’t have to awkwardly kick one of you out of the group.”  She grins, obviously pleased with how everything has been going.  “We’re gonna have to come to a stop, though, because I haven’t really done much else on the next part and I don’t feel like improvising today.”

Since it’s still early in the evening, the friends mill around for a bit, talking and hanging out.  Nothing too exciting.

As per usual, Pidge and Matt kick the others out before it gets too late.  That’s what happens when the two hosts are introverts who enjoy their solitary computer time in the evening. 

Once again, Lance finds himself alone with Keith, standing on the walkway outside Matt and Pidge’s apartment. 

He isn’t quite sure how this keeps happening. 

“Do you, um, do you want to come over?” Lance asks.  “It’s still pretty early in the day, and it’s not like we have school tomorrow.”

“Uh, sure,” Keith says.  He hopes his answer doesn’t sound as much like a squeak as he thinks it does. 

“Cool.”  Lance grins and extends his hand to Keith, who readily accepts it.  Hand in hand, they descend the stairs and head to Lance and Hunk’s apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> they finished the first part of the campaign and no one died!!!
> 
> anyways sorry these chapters are basically more talk than anything else but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!!!
> 
> as always comments and kudos will actually make me cry tears of joy and my tumblr is always open :D


	5. Chapter 5

Lance drops Keith’s hand as he attempts to unlock the door.  Keith stifles laughter at Lance’s muffled Spanish curses because his key won’t turn.

“You know, oiling your key will really help with that problem,” he says.

“I’m sure it will,” Lance grouses.  “But oh well.”

“I’m just saying.  It would save you a lot of time and effort.”

Ignoring Keith, Lance finally unlocks the door and pushes it open.  Hunk is sitting on the couch, a cooking show on in the background as he types away at his computer.

“Doing some homework?” Lance asks his roommate.

“Yeah, just finishing up my part of a program for our first project,” Hunk replies.  “Oh, hey Keith.”  He raises an eyebrow at Lance, but doesn’t say anything else.

“We’ll go hang out in my room so that we don’t disturb you, buddy,” Lance says.  “Good luck with everything.”

“You too,” Hunk quips. 

Lance leads Keith further into the apartment, past the small table and down the hall for a few steps before turning into his bedroom. 

It’s tiny.

Lance has enough room for his full-sized bed, a little nightstand, a desk with a computer, a bookshelf, and a dresser.  Perched on his dresser is a nice sized TV.  Keith notices Lance’s walls are covered in posters for different things he likes.

“What did you want to do?” Keith asks.

“Uh, that’s an excellent question,” Lance replies, grinning sheepishly.  “I guess I didn’t really have anything in mind when I invited you over.  I, uh, I guess I just wanted to spend some more time with you.”  He mentally beats his head against a wall.  Way to sound desperate. 

“Should we watch a movie?  Play a video game?” Keith suggests.  He doesn’t really play a lot of video games, but he’s willing to if it means getting to hang out with Lance.

“I mean, I’m up for either.”  Lance’s skin crawls from how embarrassed and awkward he feels.

They were holding hands just earlier, so why is everything so awkward right now?

“Is there anything on Netflix that you really want to watch right now?  Any new movies or TV shows that are out?” Keith asks.  He’s trying.

“Yeah, I’m sure we could find something that would work for both of us.”

Lance (after a running start) throws himself on his bed, bouncing a couple times after he lands.  He pats the spot next to him, indicating for Keith to sit.

Keith tries to hide the deep breath he takes.  There’s nothing wrong with sitting on a bed with your friend.  Friends do things like that all the time.  Sure, Keith could think of better non-friend things to do than sit on that bed, but that’s beside the point, right?

Lance picks up a controller for his PS4 and turns the console on.  While he waits, he asks, “so do we want a cartoon?  A comedy?  A drama?”

“Throw on a crime drama,” Keith says with a shrug as he slides onto Lance’s bed.  “Those are always good.”

“You like those?” Lance asks as he flips through the cop shows on Netflix, choosing one at random.

“I wanted to be a cop when I was a kid.  I had a real strong sense of justice, of what was right and wrong, and I wanted to make sure that people who broke the law didn’t get away with it.”

“What changed your mind?  Nursing is pretty different from being a cop.”

Keith fidgets.  This isn’t something he’s used to talking about.  He chews his bottom lip, thinking best how to broach the subject.

As Keith’s brain works, Lance never says anything.  He doesn’t prompt Keith, doesn’t hurry him up.  He just sits, waiting patiently for Keith’s answer.

“Well, um, you know that Shiro and I got in a car wreck that killed our parents when I was eight and he was fourteen.”  Lance nods.  “We were in the hospital for a while after that.  Partly for recovery and partly so that people could figure out where to send us since we were technically orphans.”  Keith’s hand unconsciously drifts towards his chest, rubbing his collarbone.  “Besides our parents, that wreck cost Shiro his arm and gave him the scar across his nose.  I came out mostly unhurt, but I did have a shattered collarbone and a bunch of internal muscle and bone bruising.”  Lance takes Keith’s wandering hand, interlocking their fingers and resting it on his collarbone, but he doesn’t speak, just waits for Keith to continue.  “The nurses we had were so nice,” he says sadly.  “They were always there for me and Shiro, sometimes even just hanging out in our rooms with us when we didn’t need any physical care.  They made sure that we felt comfortable and knew that we had people besides each other to rely on.  We stayed in the hospital for over a month, so, by the end, we were good friends with most of them.  After that, I realized that I wanted to be able to do for other people what they did for me.  Sure, it sucked and it still does that our parents died, but they made it a little less terrible.  They helped keep me grounded whenever I started panicking.”  Keith knows there’s more that he can say, but he thinks that’s enough for one day.

Lance smiles.  “Thanks for telling me that,” he says softly.  “I know it couldn’t have been easy.”

“Yeah, well, Shiro’s always bugging me to talk about it.  Says it’ll make me feel better, so,” Keith responds.  He looks down, avoiding Lance’s eyes. 

“Hey,” Lance says.  When Keith doesn’t look up, Lance tentatively places his fingers under Keith’s chin, lifting his head, making Keith look at him.  “I mean it, okay?” 

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”  Keith shifts, uncomfortable.  “Can we just…get back to watching the show?”

“Of course.”

Lance runs his thumb over Keith’s hand in what he hopes is a soothing gesture. 

In return, Keith lays his head on Lance’s shoulder, slightly satisfying his craving for human contact. 

“You comfortable?” Lance asks after a few minutes.

“I mean, as comfortable as someone can be right now.”

Lance laughs softly.  “C’mere.” 

“What—” Keith is cut off by Lance shrugging him off his shoulder before wrapping an arm around him and pulling him close.

“My chest makes a better pillow than my shoulder,” Lance explains lightly.  “It’s less bony.”

Keith is hyper-aware of Lance’s hand resting on his side, long fingers splayed over his hip.  But he will say Lance is right; his chest is muscular enough to make a good pillow.  All that swimming does Lance good.

“My little brother Miguel was supposed to have a twin,” Lance says after a while. 

“Yeah?” Keith says.  While Lance never shuts up about his family, Keith has never heard him mention anything about this before.

Lance nods.  “Yeah.”  His tone is sad, so Keith grabs Lance’s free hand, squeezing it gently.  “They were born premature, which, as I’m sure you probably know because you’re in nursing school, is pretty common for twins.  We were all so excited when they were born, but, even as a kid, I could tell that my dad was nervous.  He said that the doctors wanted us to wait a little while longer, that we couldn’t go see our new little brothers yet.  Eventually, they let us back.  My big sister, Sel, was basically sprinting to our mom’s hospital room, but I stayed back with Isa and Mari to make sure that they got there too.  They were so excited to meet the new babies.  Isa didn’t remember Mari as a baby, and Mari hadn’t ever seen a baby that young before.”  Lance smiles at the memory, but there’s more sadness on his face than joy.  “When we got back, our mom was lying on the bed and she was only holding one baby.  Mari and Isa immediately went over and cooed at Miguel, too young to really remember or understand that there were supposed to be two babies instead of one.  Sel was sitting in the armchair by the window.  Dad had a hand on her shoulder.”  Lance pauses, clears his throat.

“Take your time,” Keith says. 

“It’s funny,” Lance says quietly.  “I’m having trouble talking about how the baby brother I never knew died, but you were able to tell me about your parents no problem.”

“That’s okay.  We’re different people, Lance, so we handle our emotions and things differently.  I, uh, I try and detach myself from the situation so that I don’t have to think about it, don’t have to feel the pain again.  But it’s okay that you don’t do that.  Like I said, just take your time.”

Lance smiles, leans his head against Keith’s.  “I remember feeling like I was floating, like I wasn’t actually there.  I walked over to Sel and my dad and…I just looked at my dad and I knew what had happened.”

“That’s how I felt when the doctors told me and Shiro we were orphans,” Keith says.  “It’s weird.  You hear what they’re saying but it doesn’t really sink in, doesn’t really make sense.”

Lance nods.  “Yeah.”

Keith snuggles closer to Lance, resting his free hand on Lance’s chest.  “Thanks,” he murmurs.

“Of course,” Lance replies.  He gently presses his lips to the top of Keith’s head.  It’s such a sudden movement that Keith almost misses it.

Keith uses the monotony of the show they’re watching to steady his breathing and calm his heart.

He has to have imagined it.

Like, he knows that Lance is an affectionate and friendly guy, but there’s no way that he could have just kissed Keith’s head. 

They’ve only been actual friends (again) for, like, a month. 

They’ve only been, uh, whatever _this_ is for, like...not that long. 

Lance stares wide-eyed at the television, heavily debating jumping out the window even though he lives on the first floor of his apartment and knows he wouldn’t get hurt.

Well, there sure isn’t a doubt in his mind that he likes Keith now.

Eventually, though, they both settle down.

Keith tells Lance whenever the medical people on the show are inaccurate, or if it would be impossible to do something they’re describing.

Lance tells Keith to hush because he’s ruining the show with his realism.

Lance opens his eyes, blinks slowly.  He tries to lift his arm to help rub the sleep out of his eyes, but he finds it pinned down by something heavy.  That’s strange.

Wait.

Wait just a second.

Lance tilts his head down as he remembers what exactly he was doing before he fell asleep.  He sees Keith snoring softly, curled up against Lance’s chest.  The corners of Lance’s mouth tug up in a kind smile, and he places another gentle kiss to Keith’s head. 

Might as well sneak those in while he can.

Considering how antsy they were earlier, Lance is happy that Keith is so calm, so serene in this moment. 

He thinks back to his conversation with Hunk, about how he wasn’t sure of his own feelings (let alone Keith’s), and how he wasn’t going to do anything, wasn’t going to act on anything until he was sure.  And now, here he is, getting all cozy and snuggly with Keith.

After a little while longer, Keith begins to stir. 

Lances notices he’s quick to wake. 

Keith quickly scoots away once he realizes where he is, red faced and stammering some sort of apology to Lance. 

“Dude, Keith, it’s fine.  I’m not really sure what you’re saying sorry for, but it’s fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.  Yeah, Keith, I’m sure.”

“Okay.”  Keith smiles.  It isn’t anything that spans his whole face, but it reaches his eyes and Lance knows it’s sincere.  Keith takes his phone from his pocket and checks the time.  “Interesting.”

“What?”

“It’s two in the morning.”

“Well, that would explain why I don’t hear Hunk in the living room,” Lance quips. 

“I should probably get going,” Keith says quickly.

“I mean, it’s pretty late.  You can, um, you can stay if you’d like,” Lance replies, just as quickly.  He’s not entirely sure why, but he knows that he doesn’t want Keith to leave.

“Really?”

“Yeah, of course.”  Lance’s voice is soft and Keith can feel his defenses melting. 

“Well, if you’re offering…”  Keith trails off and looks to Lance.

“Here, let me get you some more comfortable clothes,” Lance says with a grin.  He hops up off the bed and rummages through his dresser.  He tosses a pair of pajama pants at Keith.  “Do those work?”

“I don’t see why they won’t,” Keith says.  He takes advantage of Lance being turned around to change his clothes.  The pants are about three inches too long, but Keith doesn’t mind.

After they’re both dressed in their “comfy sleepy clothes” as Lance so eloquently puts it, they crawl under the covers.  Keith thinks he’d be more embarrassed if he wasn’t so damn tired. 

“Good night, Keith,” Lance says softly, yawning.

“Goodnight, Lance.”

Keith is hot when he wakes up. He is used to falling asleep and waking up in the cold, not the hot.  He tries to shift, but finds that it’s not as easy as it should be.

There’s something constricting him.

He frowns because, when he fell asleep, he and Lance were on opposite sides of the bed.  It doesn’t make sense for Lance to have wormed his way over and completely wrapped himself around Keith.

And yet, here Keith is. 

One of Lance’s hands has made its way under Keith’s shirt and rests against the cool skin of his stomach.  The other is under Keith’s head.  Lance’s legs are entangled with Keith’s and his face is buried in between Keith’s shoulder blades, his breath tickling Keith’s sensitive skin.

Of course Lance would be the cuddliest sleeper in the history of the world.  Most of the other boys in Keith’s life were content with, like, regular spooning or more simple snuggles.   

It’s not that he isn’t used to snuggles, or cuddling, or holding hands, he realizes, it’s that he isn’t used to _Lance_.  He’s so used to feeling animosity towards the other boy that it’s taking him some time to warm back up to him.  This week has definitely been a learning experience.

Keith smiles as he realizes he doesn’t mind.  He likes being this close to Lance.

Lance, after what feels like forever, wakes up.

Well, he’s not technically awake, but he’s also not still asleep.

Groggily, he places a kiss to Keith’s spine.  “G’morning,” he mumbles, his voice still thick with sleep. 

“Hey, Lance,” Keith says. 

Lance stretches, freeing Keith from his clutches.  “Never thought you’d be able to swallow your pride enough to be the little spoon,” he muses.

“Lance, I woke up to this,” Keith protests, turning over so that he can glare at Lance properly. 

“Yeah, but you still accepted it,” Lance says, a shit-eating grin on his face.  He blinks lazily a few times.  “What do you want to do today?”

“What?”  Keith is a little taken aback.  He figures that since he and Lance spent basically all of the past week together, Lance would want some alone time. 

Lance blushes, immediately starts tripping over his words.  “Unless, of course, you’d rather, I don’t know, do your homework or something?  I guess that makes sense because we spent yesterday playing D&D—”

“Lance.”

“Y-yeah?”

“I’ve done all my homework.”

“Oh.”

Keith’s hand travels to the back of his neck.  “I was, uh, more surprised that you want to keep hanging out with me.  We’ve spent, like, almost the entire last week together between school, the beach, and D&D.”

“Why wouldn’t I want to spend time with you?” Lance asks, eyebrows furrowed together in genuine confusion.

Keith swallows the lump in his throat.  “Well, uh, I mean, the only people who usually want to spend any time with me are Allura and Shiro.  Pidge and Hunk have been warming up to me recently, so I guess there’s that too.”  Keith pauses, but Lance doesn’t say anything.  Keith can tell the brunette is waiting for him to finish his train of thought, to say what he’s really thinking.  “I guess…I guess I’m just not used to people liking me that much,” he finally says.  His voice is quiet, small.  Scared.

“You don’t have to worry about me not liking you, Keith,” Lance says, voice soft, careful.

“Yeah?”

“Of course, you goof,” Lance says, grinning, his blue eyes shining like the sea.  “I like you a lot.”

Keith bites his lip, averts his eyes.  “Yeah?” he repeats. 

“Yeah.”

The quiet between them is comfortable.  They lie on their sides, facing each other as Keith ponders the implications of Lance’s words. 

Lance likes him.

Now, sure, he didn’t say _like_ like, but there were some undertones that Keith didn’t miss.  Besides, if Lance _didn’t_ like like him, why would he be so snuggly with Keith?  Why would he be so careful, so patient?

So open?

It makes Keith squirm, how open Lance has been with him.  It makes him feel like he should do the same, even if he’s not exactly sure how.

“I like you a lot, too,” Keith whispers, still avoiding Lance’s gaze.

Keith feels the bed shift as Lance moves closer, wraps his arms around Keith.  “I know.”  Lance presses his lips against Keith’s forehead, lets them linger.  “But thanks for telling me.”

“You know?” Keith asks, voice shaking.  How embarrassing.

“You’re not exactly known for your subtlety, Keith,” Lance says with a laugh. 

“What gave it away?”

“You had one of those dopey, lovey-dovey looks on your face the other day when you thought I wasn’t looking.  It, uh, it caught me off guard because, well, I wasn’t expecting it from you.”

“I wasn’t expecting it from me either,” Keith grumbles.  “But I’m not complaining.”

“Me neither.”

They stay that way for a little while longer, Keith wrapped in Lance’s arms, enjoying each other’s company. 

“I need to shower,” Keith says. 

“Didn’t you shower yesterday?”

“Well, yeah, but I like being clean.”

“It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours.”

“And here I thought that you of all people would understand.”

“Keith, buddy, I do.  But at the same time showering that often isn’t good for your hair or your skin.  You’ve gotta them a little bit of time to replenish their natural oils.”

“You sound like a skin care commercial.”

“Sue me.”

Keith has a better idea.  He moves his hand from Lance’s chest to his side, close to his underarm.

Lance starts.  “No.  No way.  Absolutely not.  Don’t you _fucking dare_ —” the rest of his sentence is cut off because Keith starts to tickle him.  Lance lets out the most _embarrassing_ squeak as he tries to squirm away from Keith’s fingers. 

Keith just laughs.  But he doesn’t torture Lance for long.

He does, however, end up on top of Lance, leaning over him.

Lance’s cheeks flush when he realizes where he is, what it could mean. 

Keith doesn’t fare much better.  His face gets even redder when he realizes he’s in the perfect position to kiss Lance.  Just lean down ever-so-slightly and press their lips together. 

He doesn’t, though. 

What he _does_ do is playfully kiss the tip of Lance’s nose.  “Get good, you scrub,” he quips.

“That’s rude as hell and you know it,” Lance fusses.  “Now get off of me.”  Lance debates adding something about “especially if you aren’t going to do anything,” but decides against it.  It’s still a little too early for that and he doesn’t want to make Keith nervous or uncomfortable. 

If—when?—they do kiss, Lance wants it to mean something.  Wants it to be soft and sweet, something that he’ll cherish.

Not that he minds kisses after a tickle fight.  Those are _always_ good kisses.

“So, my earlier question still stands,” Lance says.  “What do you want to do?”

“Why are you asking me?”

Lance shrugs.  “Well, the last time that we hung out, just the two of us, we went to the beach, which is my favorite thing.  I figured I’d ask you what your favorite thing to do is so that we could do that.”

Keith’s blush returns.  Who knew Lance was so thoughtful?  (That’s a lie.  He knows because he’s seen it in almost everything Lance does.)  “I really like to go hiking,” he says eventually. 

“Yeah?”

Keith nods.  “There’s a good place a little ways from here if you don’t mind.”

“If I minded, I wouldn’t have asked what you wanted to do,” Lance quips.  “Wanna meet in the parking lot in, like, half an hour?”

“Sounds good.”

Keith turns to go, but Lance grabs his wrist and pulls him in for a hug.  He tenses at first, unsure.  This is the first time they’ve hugged, after all. 

“Y’know, these aren’t supposed to be one-sided,” Lance says.

“Oh, uh, right, sorry.”  Keith lifts his arms and returns Lance’s hug.

“There you go.  Wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Keith pushes Lance away.  “You’re pushing your luck,” he says with a forced scowl.

Lance grins.  “You know you like it.”

Keith grumbles something that Lance doesn’t quite catch, but he also doesn’t mind.  He knows Keith is just being difficult for show. 

“I’ll see you in a bit,” Lance says as he shows Keith out the door.

When he turns to go back to his room, Lance sees Hunk leaning in his doorway.  “Got plans?”

Lance blushes.  “Maybe.”

Hunk smiles and it is kind.  “It’s fine if you do, Lance.  I’m just glad to see that you’ve opened up since we talked last week.”

“Well, Keith has opened up, and that’s sort of given me some confidence too,” Lance explains.  “He seems more comfortable, so I’ve been gently poking at his boundaries to see what I can and can’t do.”  He sighs.  “We’ve been hanging out a lot, but we haven’t done anything that I know for sure he likes.  So, we’re, uh, we’re going hiking here in a bit.”

Hunk raises an eyebrow.  “I never thought Keith would be the one to like hikes.”

“Me neither,” Lance replies with a shrug.  “But I’m not complaining.  I like spending time with him.”

“I know.  I’m gonna be hanging out with Pidge today, so if you need anything just let me know.”

“Sure thing, buddy.”

After Hunk leaves, Lance quickly changes into hiking clothes and grabs one of the small bags from his closet.  He fills his water bottle and grabs a couple granola bars, tossing them into his bag.  By the time he reaches the parking lot, Keith is already there.

“So, do you have directions to this place?” Lance asks. 

“No, I was going to make you figure out your way with nothing but your wits,” Keith says sarcastically.  “I already plugged the address into my phone, don’t give me that look.”

The closer they get to their destination, the more and more trees Lance sees.  Instead of only seeing oak and pine trees, there’s also some maples and dogwoods. 

Lance turns into a gravel lot as Keith’s phone announces that they have arrived at their destination.  The lot is surrounded by tall trees that tower over everything, providing plenty of shade. 

“C’mon,” Keith says as they get out of the car.  “It’s not that long of a hike, but I like to relax at the end for a little while.”

“Calm down, Keith,” Lance says with a laugh as Keith takes his hand and drags him to the far left trailhead.  “We’ve got plenty of time.”

“I know, I know,” Keith says, slowing down.  “I just…I really want to show this to you.”  His cheeks flush in embarrassment.

Lance lifts Keith’s hand to his mouth, ghosting his lips across the skin.  “And I appreciate that, babe,” he says, grinning.  He figures that it’s about time to test that.

Keith raises an eyebrow at the pet name, but doesn’t tell Lance to stop.  What can he say?  He likes nicknames. 

They start down the trail.  It’s not a difficult hike, seeing as it’s pretty flat terrain, with only a few hills here and there.  But it is a long hike.  Lance is sure they walk for at least two miles before Keith tells him that they’re almost there.

Lance, however, enjoys the hike.  It’s nice to be outside in the fresh air, with the birds singing and all those other clichéd things people enjoy about nature.  It’s also nice to see how much Keith relaxes.  All of the tension that is always present in his posture is gone.  Keith walks easily, taking in the scenery.  He’s happier and calmer than Lance has ever seen him be.

Finally, they reach the cusp of the last hill and Lance is able to see where the trail ends.  It peters off at a small lake surrounded by a field. 

Keith looks to Lance, eyes shining and expression bright.  “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Lance replies absently, not just talking about the meadow. 

Keith leads Lance down the hill, brings him to the edge of the pond.  He babbles about how, in the early summer and spring, this place is a lot prettier than it is right now.  There are more birds, flowers, and other living things.

“But, hey, c’mon!  There’s something I want us to do.”  Keith drags Lance over to the meadow, looking around carefully before dropping Lance’s hand, taking off his bag, and lying down on the ground.  He looks up at Lance before patting the grass next to him.  “Get down here.”

And so Lance does.  He lies down next to Keith, head turned in his direction.  “What are we doing?”

“Look up,” Keith answers.

Lance complies, squinting a little as he looks at the sky.  There are some clouds lazily drifting by.  “Okay?”

Keith purses his lips.  “What do you see?”

“Clouds.”

“Well, yeah, but I meant…what shapes do you see?”

“Keith, are you asking me to look for different shapes in the clouds?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you just say so?”

Keith is glad that Lance is still staring at the sky because it means he misses Keith’s blush.  “Because most people think it’s dumb.”

“Why would I think that?” Lance asks softly.

“I dunno,” Keith muses.

“Exactly.”

They start pointing out the different shapes the clouds take.  Lance doesn’t think he sees that much, but Keith names all sorts of things; shoes, houses, people, animals.  Lance isn’t sure how he sees anything, so he says as much.

“Well, Shiro used to do this with me all the time when we were kids,” Keith says.  “Whenever I…started freaking out about something, he’d take me outside and focus on the sky, on the clouds.  He-he always said it was a better way to make something out of nothing.”

Lance takes Keith’s free hand in his own and squeezes it gently.  “I think he has a good point.”

“Me too.”

“So this is your favorite thing to do?” Lance asks.  “Being outside and cloud-watching, that is.”

Keith nods.  “Yeah.  I, uh…I really like how nice and pretty it is outdoors.  It reminds me that the world isn’t all bad.  That, despite losing my parents, seeing all the shitty things I do as a nurse, there’s good things.  So, after really rough days I always try to do something that helps me see the good in the world.”

Lance smiles, heart swelling.  “That’s awesome,” he says.

“Well, I mean, it’s not that big of a deal,” Keith says. 

“Shut up and take the compliment, Keith,” Lance retorts.

“Sure thing, _babe_.”

Lance grins, but doesn’t say anything, instead going back to deciphering clouds with Keith.

They talk a little bit more, small words without much implication.

Eventually, though, Lance stops watching the clouds and instead spends his time looking at Keith.  At the way his eyes glow as he points out shapes to Lance, as he talks about things Shiro claims to have seen before. 

It doesn’t take long for Keith to notice.  He rolls onto his side, looks at Lance.  “See anything interesting?”

“Yeah,” Lance says firmly.  “Yeah, I do.”

Keith blushes.  “I, uh, I see.”

“Good.”  Lance smiles. 

He’s close to Keith, oh so close.  Keith can see the golden flecks in Lance’s blue eyes, can count the multitude of freckles splashed across his nose and cheeks.

Lance leans a little closer, touches his forehead to Keith’s, brushes their noses together.  “Hey.”

“Hi.”

“We’re, uh, pretty close right now.”

“We sure are.”

“This is a pretty romantic moment.”

“It sure is.”  Keith tries to keep his heart from breaking through his ribcage (which he knows isn’t possible, but he feels like it might happen with how hard his heart is pounding). 

Lance bites his lip.  He tucks a lock of hair behind Keith’s ear before cupping his cheek.  “In, um, in moments like this romantic people tend to, well, they…they tend to kiss each other.”  He stares into Keith’s grayish purple eyes, the bottomless pools of color and shine.

Keith smiles.  It’s nothing big, but it softens his face.  “Maybe later, Lance.”  He nuzzles his nose against Lance’s.  “I…I really do like you, Lance.  I promise.  I just…not right now.”

“Y-yeah, of course.  Of course, Keith.”  Lance closes his eyes, just enjoys how close he is to Keith, does his best to quell his disappointment.

After a little while, Keith shifts.  He sits up, checks the time.  “We should probably get going,” he tells Lance.

They walk back in silence, each caught up in his own thoughts.

Lance worries that he was too forward, that he moved too quickly.

Keith wonders if he should regret saying no.  It _was_ a pretty romantic moment.  But, in the end, he knows it was the right choice.  He knows that he likes Lance, but kissing is a big deal.  He wants to be just a little bit surer of his feelings, of the situation before he says yes to something like that.

They talk a little bit more in the car, but the ride home is mostly filled with the synthetic pop music on the Top 40 charts.

Keith’s stomach churns uneasily.  He’s starting to regret saying no the longer they drive, the further they get away from the meadow.  He’s got proof that he and Lance like each other, care for each other.  He laughs at himself.  This always happens.  He freezes in the moment, unsure, wary, frightened. 

“Keith?  Hey, Keith, you there, babe?” 

Keith is abruptly brought back to reality by Lance’s hand waving in front of his face.  “What?  Y-yeah, I’m good.”

Lance grins.  “Okay, cool.  Well, we’re home.”  Lance climbs out of the car.  Keith quickly follows suit, purposefully walks to Lance’s side of the car, grabs the other boy’s hips, brings him close, stands on his tippy-toes and—

Kisses him. 

Keith presses his lips against those of a _very_ startled Lance.  Lance adapts quickly, though, a soft moan escaping his mouth as he presses himself against Keith, tangles his long fingers in that black hair. 

After a few seconds, Lance pulls back.  “I thought you didn’t want to kiss me right now,” he breathes.

Keith huffs out a laugh.  “Well, that was, like, an hour ago.”

“What changed your mind?”

Keith shrugs.  “I don’t know.  It just felt right.”

“Well, I’m not complaining,” Lance quips before giving Keith another peck on the lips. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i updated this at work lol
> 
> ;) ;) ;) ;)
> 
> comments and kudos are my life blood so don't be afraid to leave them :D


	6. Chapter 6

It’s been a couple weeks since the group last played, and Pidge is eager to get started.  She keeps ushering her friends along, making sure they’re getting their snacks and drinks quickly, instead of milling around for a bit like they usually do.

(It’s also been a couple weeks since Lance and Keith kissed.  Not much has changed, but neither of them are complaining.  They still haven’t told their friends, but they also aren’t entirely sure what they would say.)

“We’ve got a lot to do in this part, guys,” she says.  “I want to be sure that you get through at least a little bit of it.  And don’t forget that you were supposed to have leveled up your characters before you got here today.”

“Okay, okay, sis.  Don’t worry, we’ve got plenty of time, and I’m sure _everybody_ has their character at the right level,” Matt says, doing his best to soothe his little sister’s nerves. 

Pidge flashes a wry smile in her brother’s direction.  “Thanks.”  Her eyes flit over all her friends, making sure they’re ready (they linger on Lance and Keith a little longer, noticing the ease with which Lance rests his arm on Keith’s shoulder, the way Keith presses himself closer to Lance).  “So, does everyone remember where we left off?”

“Yeah, Pidge, don’t worry.  We’re _totally_ ready for the second part of your campaign,” Lance says.

“Your sarcastic remark does not give me any hope whatsoever,” Pidge replies.  “Anyways, so all of you are still at the mayor’s office.  Do you have any last-minute questions for him, or are you ready to move on?” 

“Yeah, actually, I do,” Hunk says.  “Sir, the goblins said—”

“Actually, it was my good friend Drezz who you made me kill—”

“Get over it, Lance.  Anyways, sir, we were told that the gnome is probably even further east of here than those caves were.  Do you have any idea what’s over there?”

“The mayor frowns and it’s obvious that he’s really thinking.  There’s the old abandoned farming village of Solace further out that way, but I ain’t heard of anyone being round there for a while.”

Hunk frowns.  “Abandoned farming village?  We should go check it out.  Levi turns and smiles at the mayor.  Thanks for your help, sir.”

“The mayor returns your smile and sends you on your way.  Is there anything else you guys want to do?” Pidge asks.  “There’s plenty of town to explore, or you can go ahead and make your way to Solace.”

They choose to walk around the village some more before heading out on their epic adventure.  Unfortunately, most of the villagers are still holed up in their houses in fear of the goblins (Lance accuses Pidge of just being lazy and not wanting to write all the NPCs).  The general store, however, has its doors wide open for the heroes.  He doesn’t have much for sale, but the group does pick up a couple health potions, just in case.  Lance tries to wiggle his eyebrows at the owner and see if he has any “special” items, but he rolls a twelve and the shopkeeper just kind of stares at him before politely asking him to leave if he’s finished.

“What if I told him I’d sing him a song?”

“He says that he doesn’t like music.  His wife died while they were at a dance, so you probably shouldn’t.”

“You’re making that up.”

“I’m the DM, I can do what I want.”

“I really thought I could pull that off,” Lance muses.  “Oh well.”  He shrugs.  “We ready to head out?”

“Yeah, let’s get going,” Allura says. 

“Okay, well, it’s actually night time, so you guys need to get some sleep before you head out.  After that, though, you guys make it back the way you came.  Since you took care of the goblins in the forest, nothing bothers you on your way to Solace.”

“Translation: Pidge didn’t feel like writing up forest encounters for us,” Shiro says.  Everyone has been getting more comfortable with the campaign and calling out Pidge on her bullshit.

“Shut the hell your mouth, Shiro,” Pidge retorts.  “I didn’t put as much effort into this as I could have because I wasn’t sure if you guys would like it, and I didn’t want all my hard work to go to waste.”

“So does that mean your next campaign will be way more in depth?” Keith asks.

Pidge shrugs.  “Who knows?”

“Can we get back to the campaign at hand and stop focusing on something Pidge hasn’t started working on yet?” Matt asks.  He crosses his arms and makes his best fake pout face. 

“Who knew my big brother was such a baby,” Pidge remarks. 

“I take personal offense at that.”

“I know.”  Pidge grins and winks at Matt.  “Anyways, after about half of day’s travel, you guys reach the edges of Solace.  From where you are, you can make out three separate farms that are close to the city center, and then a large building that looks like probably served as Solace’s town hall.  Where do you want to go?” 

“How about the closest farm?” Keith suggests.  “Just go in order, y’know?”

“Well, as you guys get closer to the first farm, you realize that you aren’t going to find anything there.  This place is the just the blackened remains of a farm.  It’s been abandoned for a long time,” Pidge describes. 

“That’s lame,” Lance says.  “Time to head to the second farm.”

“Okay.  There’s a little bit more substance to this one.  The walls are still up, even if part of the roof isn’t.  If you wanna see anything else, you’re gonna have to roll a perception check.”

“I’ve got this,” Shiro says.  “I’ve had practice since the first time.”

“There’s a sex joke in there somewhere,” Lance says. 

“Okay, so I rolled a nineteen and then I get a plus three because of my modifier, so that’s a twenty-two,” Shiro says, steamrolling Lance’s comment.

“So much for hoping that you guys wouldn’t see anything here,” Pidge says.  “Wells walks through the front door of the farm in front of the others.  He takes in the room, not really seeing anything out of the ordinary.  But then he notices a rug on the floor that is less dusty than everything else in the house and looks like it’s covering something.”

“Wells grabs the rug and moves it.”

“He’s revealed a trap door.  Do you guys want to go ahead and go down it or check out the last farm first?”

“I vote that we check out that last farm,” Allura says.  “There might be something important there.”

“Sound good to the rest of you?” Pidge asks.  They all nod.  “All right, so you guys go to the third farm.  Who’s gonna roll investigation?”

“I’ll do it,” Lance offers.  He rolls his die and then just laughs.  “That’s a four, so never mind.”

“In light of that, I got a thirteen,” Keith says. 

“Good thing at least one of you knows how to use your eyes,” Pidge notes.  “Rolxus looks around the small room and sees a book.  Wanna pick it up?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Okay, so once you grab it and open it, you realize it’s a journal.  Most of the entries are either mundane accounts of what life was like in this town or too damaged to read.  The last one, however, interests you.  Want me to go ahead and read it aloud so everyone knows what it is?”  Keith nods.  “Gotcha.”  Pidge takes a deep breath and begins to read from her notebook.  “Things have been a little weird here recently.  Papa said that another one of our neighbors disappeared.  I think he doesn’t want to scare me, so he’s telling me as little as possible.  But I can’t help but think it has something to do with that gnome lady, Maylis—”

“See, I told you that this place would be important!” Allura interrupts.

“No one disagreed with you,” Shiro says.  “Now let Pidge finish.”

“Anybody got anything else to say before I start again?” Pidge asks.  “Doesn’t matter if you do.  Anyways.  Maylis, who showed up a few months ago.  She’s been staying in the town hall.  She hasn’t moved on, and no one really knows anything about her.  I’ll probably go and try to talk to her tomorrow, see if there’s anything I can learn from her.”

“Well, I guess we can all figure why that was the last entry,” Lance jokes kind of nervously.  “But should we go check the city hall before we head back to that trap door?”

“Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with checking,” Matt says.  “We’ve gotta be thorough so that we don’t miss something that could help us with the campaign.”

“All right.  So the six of you leave this last farm and head to the city hall.  All of the windows are boarded up and seemingly impenetrable.  The front door is made of solid wood that looks surprisingly sturdy, considering how long this town has been abandoned.  What do you want to do?”

“Does the door open when I turn the handle?” Shiro asks.  Pidge shakes her head.  Shiro frowns.

“Can I try to pick the lock?” Keith asks.  Pidge nods.  “Okay, so that’s a seventeen, once I add my modifiers and stuff.  That do anything?”

“Nope.  Rolxus really tries to pick the lock but it doesn’t even budge.”

“What if I tried to break it down?” Hunk suggests.

“I want to do an arcana check,” Allura says.  “No offense, Hunk, but I don’t want Levi to take any damage in case it doesn’t go well.”

“Yeah, okay, I get that,” Hunk says in agreement. 

“All right, so that’s a twenty-one,” Allura says brightly.  “Elisys had better see something.”

“And see something she does,” Pidge says.  “Elisys can tell that this whole building is heavily enchanted.  Someone has spent a lot of time making sure that it is absolutely impossible to enter this building.  There are a lot of spells cast on this door and the windows.”

“Well, it looks like our only option is to go back to that trap door,” Allura tells everyone.  “There’s no way that we’re getting into the town hall this way.”

“All right, let’s get going,” Hunk says. 

“When you reach the trap door again, you realize that it’s locked.  You can either pick the lock or try to break it,” Pidge explains.

“Uh, I only got a fourteen, so I’m assuming Hunk or Shiro is gonna have to break it,” Keith says. 

“Yeah,” Pidge says.

“I got a sixteen to punch it open,” Shiro says.

“That works.”

“Cool.  So, Wells takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, concentrating.  Then he slams the heel of his hand down on the lock and breaks it.”

“That’s pretty fucking metal, Shiro,” Keith says. 

“Were you expecting something different from me?”  Shiro grins at Keith.

“Of course not,” Keith replies sarcastically.

“Good!  Glad you believe in me.”

“Now that that lovely sibling bonding moment is over, let’s get back to the campaign at hand.  Since the trap door has opened, the six of you climb down the ladder that you can see and end up in a dark tunnel.  Uh, I think the only ones who have any trouble seeing are Hunk and Shiro, but the rest of you have some sort of darkvision.  There’s a tunnel before you guys, and you think that you can see that it ends in a door.”

“Okay, let’s head down the tunnel,” Hunk says.  “I’ll go first.”

“Roll a dexterity save,” Pidge tells him.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Hunk grumbles.  “That’s a, uh…a two.  Yeah.  A two.” 

“As Levi is walking and _totally_ not paying any fucking attention to where he’s going, he steps on a pressure plate and a couple darts fly out of the wall.  Since he didn’t see them in time, he takes four points of damage.”  Hunk starts to protest but Pidge shuts him up with a wave of her hand.  “Learn your lesson and look before you walk.  But, because I’m not _that_ mean, no one else gets hurt and you guys make it to the door without any trouble.”

“Does it open easily?” Keith asks.

“Yeah, don’t worry.  You open the door to reveal a small circular room.  On the wall opposite the party, there’s a huge slab of rock on the wall that you guys figure is covering your only way out.  What’s more interesting, however, is what you see on the floor.  The first thing that you notice is that there are two stones that are slightly raised off the floor.  Around the room are some weird items too: two wooden shields, a long sword, some rocks, a cooking pot, a helmet, and what looks suspiciously like a human femur.  What do you want to do?”

“Why is there a human leg bone?” Hunk asks nervously.

“For funsies,” Pidge quips. 

The group begins discussing various things they can do with the puzzle in front of them.  They come to the conclusion that they obviously have to stack the items on the plates, but they aren’t sure which items go where, or how much weight each plate can handle.  Keith keeps insisting that he should be able to stand on one of the plates and see what happens.

“Can I look around the room to see if there’s something else that can help?” Hunk asks after a bit. 

“Sure thing.”

“Uh, that’s a twelve for perception.”

“You notice that the left plate looks like it’s attached to the mechanism that opens the door.”

Hunk chews his lip, pondering this information in his brain.  Then, he gets his.  His face lights up and he turns to his friends.  “Oh, oh guys!  I think I got it!  We’ve got to put all the weight on the left plate because that will lift the lock on the door.”

“I trust Hunk implicitly,” Lance says.  “Let’s do this.”

So they stack everything on the right plate and cross their fingers (Lance holds on to Keith’s hand for dear life).  Pidge stares at all of them (making everyone even more nervous) before replying, “once everything is stacked on the right plate, you see the left one raise into the air and hear a click as the door mechanism starts to open.”

There is lots of cheering. 

“Beyond the door, you see another dark hallway.”

“I’m checking it for traps this time,” Keith says.  “Thirteen?”

“Keith you notice that there’s a pit about halfway down the hall that’s been covered.”

“Hey guys, if you aren’t careful you’re gonna fall and die,” Keith tells the others.

Pidge rolls her eyes.  “All right, I need everyone to roll an acrobatics check to see if you make it across.”

Everyone rolls and Allura and Hunk don’t quite make the cut, their rolls too low to save them from jumping poorly and falling into the pit.  “Don’t worry, you can pull them out,” Pidge says in response to the protests.  Both of them are successfully rescued from the pit, even if it does take a couple tries.  Pidge delivers her players safely to the next room where they are confronted with another puzzle.

“How many of these things are there going to be?” Lance whines.  “Puzzles are hard.”

“Why solve them when you could just go through them with brute force?” Keith jokes.

“Keith.  Buddy.  You’re a rogue.”

“It was a joke, Lance,” Keith sighs. 

“How long is this couple’s quarrel going to last?” Pidge asks.

“Hey, whoa now—”

“Yeah, there’s no need for—”

“Now that you two are back with the rest of us, I’m gonna describe the puzzle.”  Lance and Keith flush, but they don’t protest anymore.  “You’re faced with basically the same room as before.  There’s still a huge slab of rock over the door, but there’s nothing else in the room.  The rock has two buttons.  Once all of you are in the room, you hear a voice.  It sounds like a recording.  I have a question for you, dear adventurers, it says.  A young noble is brutally murdered in his own room.  After much searched, only two suspects remain: his servant, who is an honest and good boy that the noble does not treat very well, and his father, who is a cruel man that is known for his fits of rage.  The servant is known to be honest but his alibi is that he was sleeping at the time of the murder.  The father is not known for his kindness, but has a person so vouch for his alibi.  Who murdered the young noble?”

A whole bunch of ideas pop up.  Matt, actually, almost immediately presses the button for the father because no one can make up their mind and he doesn’t have time for their arguments.  Unfortunately, that triggers a battle with two will-o’-wisps, but the party deals with them quickly. 

“Okay, so, maybe we should think things through better next time.  I don’t want to fight any more of those wisps,” Hunk says. 

They go back to discussing what could be the answer, torn between the two choices. 

“It just doesn’t seem like we have enough evidence to convict either of them,” Allura says.  “Are you sure there’s nothing else we could learn, Pidge?”

“I’m sure.”

“Wait a second,” Shiro says, suddenly understanding.  “We don’t have enough information.  That means that we can’t convict either one of them, which means—”

“—we press both buttons!” Keith shouts, finishing Shiro’s sentence.  They grin at each other and high five. 

“Wells pushes past everyone else who is arguing and just presses both of the buttons on the door,” Shiro says. 

“It opens!” Pidge tells them.  “And you see, yet again, a dark hallway.”

“I’m searching for traps, so don’t worry,” Shiro says.  “That’s a fifteen.”

“Okay, so in the light you can tell that there’s a tripwire about halfway down the hall.”

“I’ll disable it,” Keith tells them.  “Eighteen.”

“Yeah, you just kind of, like, look at the tripwire and it falls to the floor.”

“So, Pidge, what wonders await us in the next room?” Lance asks sarcastically.

“If you were hoping the answer was another puzzle, you’re right!” Pidge says brightly. 

Everyone else groans. 

“This room is bigger than the other two,” Pidge continues over all the bitching.  “The slab over the door has a picture of the lightning god, Haokah, engraved on it.  On the floor there are four tiles, each with a different number on them.  They say 1, 3, 6, and 7 from left to right.  There’s also a lightning bolt on each one.”

“Can I roll a perception check?” Allura asks.  “Because I feel like there has to be more to this puzzle than what you’ve shown us.”  She picks her die up as she speaks, rolling it once she’s quiet again.  “That’s a nineteen.”

“Elisys tells the rest of you to, and this is a direct quote, shut the fuck up because she’s trying to listen.  Once the others fall silent, you hear a ding.  You listen for a while, and come to the conclusion that every six seconds, there’s a dinging noise.  After eight of those dings, you hear a clap of thunder every time.”

Allura furrows her brow, deep in thought as the others try and guess what the answer to the puzzle may be.  They’re a little more cautious than last time, hoping to avoid another encounter with the wisps. 

“I feel like we need to use math for this puzzle,” Lance says.  “Eight dings, and the seven and one add up to eight.  So, maybe if we, uh, touch them the door will open?”  He doesn’t sound very confident, but it’s a good idea.

“Okay, well, Rolxus goes to stand on the one.  Lance, I think Aien should stand on the seven?  They trust each other more than the rest of the group,” Keith says. 

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

“Rolxus and Aien stand on the stones.  Both of you feel some sort of static charge build up in you, but Aien has more since he stood on the seven.  Now what do you want to do?” Pidge asks, staring at them expectantly.

“Wait, you mean that didn’t open the door?” Lance asks.  Pidge shakes her head.  “Uh, maybe we need to combine the charge?  Hey, uh, Rolxus c’mere.  Maybe if we touch we’ll build the charge up to eight and the door will open.”

“Rolxus raises his hand for a high five.”

“Aien runs up to him and does, like, one of those jump slam dunk high fives.”

“Keith, take one point of lightning damage.  Lance, take seven,” Pidge says, trying her best (and ultimately failing) to suppress a giggle.

“What the fuck, Pidge?”

“Oh, hell no!  That’s no fair, Pidge!”

Pidge shrugs, ignoring their complaints.  “You didn’t solve the puzzle, so you have to accept the consequences.”

Before Keith or Lance can protest again,  Allura interrupts.  “We need to touch the door,” she tells everyone confidently. 

“What?” Lance asks.

“The door has the lock on it, and the electricity is the key.  If we put the key in the lock, the door should open,” she explains.  “So, you two touch the stones and get charged up again and then touch the door.  It should work.”

Lance and Keith stare at each other for a couple seconds, but eventually shrug and decide to trust Allura.  “Here goes nothing,” Lance says. 

“This time, after Rolxus and Aien stand on the stones, they immediately go and touch the door.  Instead of getting electrocuted like last time, they hear the mechanisms of the door click open and the slab slides to the side.  The door is open.”  Pidge settles back into her armchair, glad that it didn’t take her friends too long to solve this puzzle.  She was a little worried that they wouldn’t get them. 

“Did the door open into another hallway?” Keith deadpans.  “Because if it did I’m checking for traps again.”

“There aren’t any.”

“I didn’t even roll?”

“Yeah, but I’m being nice.  There aren’t any traps in this hallway.”

“Let’s just trust Pidge on this one,” Hunk says.  “I just want to get down this hallway.”

“The hallway leads to, you guessed it, yet _another_ room with a door on the opposite wall.  Next to the door are six knobs.”

“Okay, there’s _definitely_ a sex joke there,” Lance says.

“That it?” Matt asks after a beat.  “Just some knobs on the wall?”

Pidge nods.  “You betcha.”

“What are we supposed to do with that?” Hunk asks. 

As the others try to decipher what exactly Pidge has come up with, Keith speaks up.  “Guys, what if we just need to turn the knobs?”

“Keith, please, it can’t be that easy,” Matt says.  “Pidge has made all the other puzzles hard, so why would this one be the exception?”

Keith opens his mouth to protest, but Lance gently squeezes his hand, effectively shutting him up. 

As the grad students plus Hunk continue to debate the answer, Keith turns to Lance.  “I think I’m right.”

“You always do, babe,” Lance drawls. 

“No, really,” Keith presses.  “Like, it would be such a fucking Pidge move.  Make everything before this really difficult and then have this be super easy.”

Lance frowns.  “You’re right.  Roll to look if you can see something the others might have missed.” 

“Hey, Pidge?” Keith asks quietly.  “Can I roll to look at the door and the knobs and see if there’s anything we missed?”

“Give me a second.  You four,” she says sharply.  “You didn’t turn the doorknobs correctly and so some wisps appear.  Oddly enough, they seem to leave Rolxus and Aien alone, focusing solely on the four of you.”

There is some grumbling as they roll for initiative to fight the wisps. 

“Go ahead and roll, Keith,” Pidge whispers. 

“Don’t you have to deal with the battle?”

“I can multitask.”

“I got a fourteen,” Keith says.

“Hunk, take six points of damage.”  Amid Hunk’s grumbling, Pidge turns to Keith.  “Upon closer examination, you notice that the locking mechanism is attached to the knobs, you see that they’re attached in a certain order almost: two, five, one, four, six, and three.”

Keith nods.  He thinks he gets it now. 

“I hit the wisp for five damage.  Does that take care of it?” Matt asks.

“Yeah, the last wisp is done for,” Pidge says.

“Since that didn’t work, what do we want to try now?” Allura asks the group at large.

“We just need to turn them,” Keith says.

“Keith, please, we all know that Pidge is much more devious than that,” Matt says.  Allura and Hunk add their various agreements.

“I agree with Keith,” Lance chimes in.  “You know she’s evil enough to give us a bunch of hard puzzles just to fuck with us at the end.”

They all look to Pidge, who just waggles her eyebrows mischievously. 

The others continue arguing, while Keith just sits there.  Listening to them bicker grates more and more on his nerves the longer it goes on.  It’s sweet that Lance is trying to defend him, but he can do it himself.  “Can you guys shut the hell up and listen for a minute?” Keith snaps. 

Shiro, Allura, Matt, Hunk, and Lance all stop mid-sentence.  “I looked at the wall and I saw that the doorknobs are attached to the lock in a specific order.  I bet that if we turn them in that order the door will open.  It’s either that or listen to all this insipid arguing between you guys that’s getting on my absolute last nerve.  There is literally _no_ harm in trying this, so we’re going to.”

Lance’s heart flutters a little.  Who knew Keith could be so assertive?

Everyone lines their characters up against the wall, turning to Rolxus for instruction.  Keith tells everyone to turn the handles in the order Pidge told him.

They wait with bated breath why Pidge watches them, her lips quirking as she tries to hide her smile.  “The door opens.”

There is lots of cheering and congratulations but it stops when Lance, in the heat of the moment, grabs Keith’s face and kisses him right on the mouth.

Lance pulls away _rather_ quickly after he does, stammering out some excuse that he doesn’t really register. 

Keith’s face is bright red and his mouth just kind of opens and closes like a fish out of water.

Pidge holds out her hand.  “Pay up.”

Every single other person in the room (sans Lance and Keith) reaches into their pocket and places ten dollars in Pidge’s open palm.

“Um, what?” Lance asks dumbly.

Pidge shrugs.  “We had a bet.”

“A bet?”

“Yeah, I’d said that you and Keith had totally kissed by now.  Hunk disagreed because you two live together and he would know.  Shiro and Allura were convinced that Keith would have talked to them about it by this point.  Matt just likes betting against me.”

“Well, how do you know that wasn’t our first kiss?” Lance asks defensively.

Pidge stares at him over the rim of her glasses.  Lance averts his eyes.  “Exactly,” she says.

“Can we just get back to the campaign?” Keith asks quietly.  His face is still very red and he rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably. 

“I agree,” Shiro says.  He makes eye contact with Keith and flashes a half-smile.  Keith eases up a little.

Lance places a hand on Keith’s thigh, looks at him as Pidge goes on to explain what happens after the door opens.  “Sorry,” he whispers.  “That was stupid of me.”

Keith is still a little upset with Lance, but he knows that it wasn’t on purpose, knows that he wasn’t trying to out them or anything.  “It’s okay,” Keith replies as he takes Lance’s hand with his own. 

Lance’s trademark goofy grin stretches across his face.  “Okay.”

“Finally, after traveling upwards for a bit, the six of you end up in a big, open room.  Before I go on to describe it, I’m gonna say that all of you are fully healed and have your spells back.  I know, I know.  You’re welcome.”  Pidge grins.  No one else does because there _has_ to be something bad ahead if Pidge is being this nice.  “So.  The room before you is a pretty gruesome sight.  Strewn around the floor along with books and empty potion bottles are lots and lots of skeletons.  Like a metric fuckton of skeletons.  You see that the door and windows are boarded over.  Allura, as you found out earlier, there is a _lot_ of magic that is also making this place impenetrable by any way other than the trapdoor that you just exited.  However, there is _one_ door that’s not boarded up.  It’s the one directly across from the entrance, directly across from all of you.  It’s slightly ajar.”

“Might as well go through it,” Shiro says.  “Not like we can really do much else.”

“When you open the door you see a sight that absolutely none of you were expecting.  This room is pretty immaculate.  There are shelves filled with books lining the walls, but other than that there is only one point of interest.  In the middle of the room is a large wooden desk.  Sitting calmly at the desk is a young gnome woman who is writing in a journal.  She has short black hair that frames her face and bright yellow eyes.  She’s wearing a navy blue set of wizard’s robes and she smiles at the party when you enter.  How may I help you?”

“That was forward of her,” Lance quips. 

“She’s a pretty straight forward kind of person,” Pidge says.

“So, uh, want to tell us about yourself?” Hunk asks.  “What?  How else am I supposed to start a conversation?”

“She smiles at Levi.  My name is Maylis, as I’m sure you have already figured out.  You’re gonna need to roll a persuasion check in order to get her to tell you some more,” Pidge says. 

They all roll, just to see.  Allura is the only one who gets higher than a ten.  “I got a sixteen after adding my modifiers,” she says.  “Is that good enough?”

Pidge nods.  “Maylis is all ears.”

“Hello, Maylis, fellow magic user here,” Allura begins.  “I was, uh, wondering if you could explain the theory and methodology behind your work.”

“Maylis immediately brightens at your question.  She’s glad that there’s someone else who uses magic who can appreciate her work.  Well, you see, my dear half-elf, it’s a type of necromancy of sorts.  What I do is I suck the life force, the energy out of my victims and I bottle it.  I use it to keep myself young and beautiful, but these potions have many uses.  They can bring a person back from the brink of death, heal a fatal wound, and add years onto your life.  They’re quite useful.”

“Elisys nods, feigning interest in this conversation.  How long have you been doing this, again?”

“Maylis shrugs.  A few hundred years or so?  Time gets sort of blurry.  She lets out a laugh.  I’ve been in this town for about seventy years.  Now, I have a question for you.  Since you know everything, you can either take a deal or die.”

“I’m sorry, what?”  Allura is completely caught off guard.  “And I thought this conversation was going rather well, too.”

“I’m afraid that’s how it is.  You can either take a potion each and leave me to my work, or you can die.”

“Can I, um, converse with my companions for a moment and then get back to you?”

“She doesn’t have a problem with it.”

“Oh good!  Boys.”  Allura turns to the others, mouth set in a thin line.  “We have to kill her, I’m afraid.  There’s no way we can take that deal.”

“Yeah, I honestly don’t think any of us are evil enough to agree to it,” Hunk says. 

The other boys all nod in agreement. 

“Elisys turns back to Maylis, a frown on her lips.  I’m very sorry about this, but we can’t take the deal.  What you’re doing is evil and wrong and we have to put a stop to it.”

“Maylis sighs, obviously disappointed that this is the route you’ve chosen.  So be it.  She stands from her chair to face you.  Everyone roll for initiative.”

Pidge is disappointed with the order.  It ends up being Keith, Matt, Hunk, Lance, Allura, Maylis, and Shiro.  She was hoping that the gnome would get to go before the others.

“I rolled a nat twenty, so this gnome had better be ready to get shit on,” Keith says.  “She takes twelve damage.”

Pidge erases something in her journal, making a new note.  “Got it.  So, Rolxus you take her by surprise, basically, and get a good couple stabs on her before she pushes you back.  Ready, Matt?”

“I, uh, got a four.  So not really.”

“I don’t think my thirteen is going to hit her, either,” Hunk says.

“You’d be right about that,” Pidge quips.  “Lance?”

“Nineteen!  Which is a crit, right?”  Pidge nods and Lance’s grin grows.  “Before I attack, though, I was to inspire Wells.  I feel like he’ll hit.”

“Are you gonna sing him a song?” Pidge asks.  “I mean, you are a bard, after all.”

A light blush dusts Lance’s cheeks.  “I mean, um, I, uh, I guess I can.”  He clears his throat.  “Wells the human monk in the big battle, he swings so wide and he swings so not slow.  The sky above and the bad guys below, and the little boy monk on the go,” he sings awkwardly.

“Was that to the tune of ‘Baby Beluga’ by Raffi?” Shiro asks as he tries not to laugh.

“What can I say?  We were a Raffi family,” Lance answers. 

“As, uh, _questionable_ as that song was, Wells is sufficiently inspired,” Pidge says.

“Can I attack now?” 

“Go right ahead.”

“Okay, so after rolling the d8 twice, I hit that gnome bitch for ten damage,” Lance says.  “Take her down, Allura.”

Allura straightens, fixing her posture.  “I’ll do my best.”  She peruses her spell list as always, looking for the best one to hit Maylis with.  “I’m going to cast magic missile.  That’s ten more damage!”  She’s very pleased with herself.

Pidge frowns.  “I should have given her more health,” she grumbles.  “But now it’s her turn.”  She turns to Keith.  “Square up, bitch.  Maylis turns to you and casts Melf’s acid arrow on you.  Take…oh holy shit, take fourteen points of damage.”

“Fucking shit,” Keith breathes.  “That’s all of my health.  I’m unconscious.”

“Suck a dick,” Pidge says, sticking her tongue out.  “Ready, Shiro?”

“That’s an eighteen, so I’m not gonna use Lance’s inspiration.  I’m gonna use my feat, uh, flurry of blows—” Lance waggles his eyebrows suggestively, but Shiro ignores him “—and that adds two attacks.  Basically, I’m going to punch her four times.  That’s eight damage.”

“Keith, on your turn, you’ve got to make a death saving throw.  Basically, as long as you roll above a ten, you’re fine.”

“That’s a seventeen, so I’m good.  I mark it on my sheet, right?”

“Yep, yep, you betcha,” Pidge chirps.  “Matt?”

“I’m gonna heal Keith with cure wounds.”  Matt rolls some dice, does some math.  “He’s back up to full health!”

“Thank God our healer actually knows what he’s doing,” Keith says. 

“I miss again because I’m the worst fighter in the history of the world,” Hunk gripes. 

“It’s okay, bud,” Pidge reassures him.  “Lance, what are you doing?”

“Aien drops his crossbow and rushes over to Rolxus, completely forgetting the battle.  He knows that his friend is fully healed, but he can’t help himself.  He throws his arms around the tiefling and hugs him tightly.  Don’t you ever do that again, you bastard.  He then stands in front of Rolxus, ready to take a hit for him if necessary,” Lance describes.

“Lance, I hate to break it to you, but that’s gay as hell,” Pidge says.

“Well, I did just kiss a boy,” Lance counters.  He grins, leans on Keith for effect.  Keith shoves him away, but there’s no malice in the movement.

“As touching as this moment is, it’s my turn to attack,” Allura says.  “I’m going to use ray of frost.”  Allura beams as she sees her damage roll.  “That’s a solid eight damage, but there’s three more because of the ring she’s wearing.” 

Pidge cracks her knuckles absentmindedly as she debates who to attack next.  “Shiro,” she finally decides.  “How much HP do you have?”

“Eighteen.”

“Cool.”  There’s a lot of dice rolling that makes Shiro nervous.  “Take fourteen points of damage.”

“Shit, okay.  I’m still alive, at least.  And now it’s my turn, so it’s time to take my revenge.”  Shiro’s eyebrows arch as he looks at his roll.  “That, everyone, is a natural twenty.  Hope Maylis is ready to die.  Well, maybe die.  I’m not sure how much health she has.”  He pauses, adding up his damage.  “Is ten points enough to do the trick?”

Pidge nods.  “It sure is.  After taking a deep breath, Wells rears back and hits Maylis with two quick, hard punches to the abdomen.  She falls.”

There’s more cheering and high fives all around.  Lance plants a quick kiss on Keith’s cheek. 

“Congrats, dudes!  You’ve beaten this campaign.  How’d you guys like it?” 

They each give Pidge some feedback, things they liked and didn’t like.  She makes notes of all of it, agreeing with some and disagreeing with others. 

As per usual, the group hangs out for a while after they finish playing, talking about their semesters and anything else that comes to mind.  And, like always, Pidge and Matt usher them out before it gets too late. 

“Coming?” Shiro asks Keith as they stand outside.

Keith looks to Shiro, who is holding Allura’s hand, a kind smile on his face and then back to Lance, who is joking around with Hunk before waving him away.  “Maybe later.”

“Don’t have too much fun,” Shiro jokes.

“I’ll do my best,” Keith replies over his shoulder as he walks up to Lance.  “Ready?”

Lance tilts his head to the side.  “For what?”

Keith shrugs.  “Dunno, figured we could hang out some.”

“We have school tomorrow and it’s getting late,” Lance says. 

“So, that’s a yes?”

“You bet it is.”

Lance takes Keith’s hand, intertwines their fingers, and leads the way back to his apartment. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello friends!! i am sorry that this chapter took me so long! this last month has been crazy between holidays and family and Adult™ things haha
> 
> another thing is that most of this section was puzzles -- i wanted to put these puzzles to real people before i wrote them for the characters. so over break i ran this campaign for some friends! most of the reactions to the puzzles (like the high five.....i have friends who actually did that i love them) were what they did. 
> 
> a few couple random notes about this fic: the apartments are actually based off apartments that i spend a LOT of time in. hunk and lance live in my apartment, and matt and pidge live in my friend's. the little journal pidge has is actually a journal that i own irl and write all of my d&d stuff down in! their college is based off my college (location, size, but not so much subject. that #liberal arts school). 
> 
> so, i think that there's only going to be one more chapter. it probably won't be super long, but you can bet ur booty it's gonna be fluffy as hell ;)
> 
> thanks for reading and being so patient with me y'all!!! ilysm <3
> 
> comments and kudos are always 100000000% appreciated :D


	7. Chapter 7

Keith snuggles himself under Lance’s covers, peeking up at the other boy from his cocoon of blankets.  “Coming?”

Lance turns around and frowns at Keith.  “Can I at least put my pants on first?”

Keith ponders that for a moment.  Lance wearing his pants means that he’ll produce more body heat that he can transfer to Keith, which is definitely a plus.  Being warm is always good.  But at the same time, Lance wearing pants means that Keith can’t feel his warm, smooth skin under his fingers.  At least, not without a little bit of effort on his part. 

And who likes expending unnecessary effort?

“Yeah, I guess,” Keith finally decides. 

“You guess?”

Keith nods.  “Yep.”

That soft and sweet smile creeps its way across Lance’s face.  There’s an affection in his eyes for Keith that makes him squirm just a little.  Lance doesn’t need to be _that_ open with his feelings. 

But it’s nice, Keith thinks.  It’s nice.

Lance crawls into bed and curls around Keith, pulling him close.  He peppers kisses up Keith’s neck, nuzzles his face into his hair.  “Hi.”

Keith swallows the lump in his throat.  How does Lance already know how to push his buttons?  He’s more observant than Keith gave him credit for.  “Hey.”

“Did you have a good day?”

Keith furrows his brow, but it only lasts a second.  What a simple and domestic question.  Is that what they are?  They are going to bed, so Keith guesses it’s an appropriate pre-sleep question and situation.  “Yeah, I did.  D&D was fun, and it’s nice to hang out with everyone.”

“Good.”  Lance places another kiss to Keith’s neck.

Keith feels his face heat up, but he still doesn’t react.  “What about you?”

“Oh, it was fine,” Lance replies nonchalantly.  “Like you said, D&D was a good time, and I enjoy being able to come home and fall asleep with my favorite guy.”  There’s yet another kiss against Keith’s neck, but this one lasts a little longer than the rest. 

Keith turns over to face Lance.  “Do you need something?” he demands, face hot. 

Lance shrugs innocently, eyes drifting around the room.  “Oh, not really.”

Keith purses his lips and stares at Lance.  “Really?” he asks, voice dripping contempt.

“You betcha!”  Lance grins brightly. 

Keith rolls his eyes before rolling himself back over.  He scoots away from Lance, hoping that he gets the message. 

But, of course, the numbskull doesn’t, opting instead to snuggle up against Keith again.  He slips a hand under Keith’s shirt, fingers dancing over the taunt muscles and making Keith shiver.  He pushes a leg between Keith’s, which doesn’t make things better either. 

“I _might_ have been lying,” Lance whispers, breath tickling Keith’s ear. 

“I never would have guessed.”

“Keith, c’mon, don’t be mad.”

“I’m not,” Keith answers, relaxing into Lance’s embrace.  “Just frustrated.”

“Why?”  Keith can sense Lance’s curiosity, his confusion in the way his body language changes.  He pulls back just a little, puts space between them. 

“You’re being a tease.”

“Me?  A tease?  I would never!”

Keith snorts.  “I have evidence that says otherwise.”

Lance paws at Keith’s hip.  “Turn around.”

Keith complies, but his question of why catches in his throat as Lance presses his lips hungrily against Keith’s.  Keith lets out a strangled noise of surprise, but eases into the kiss quickly after his initial shock.  Lance grabs Keith’s bottom lip between his teeth, earning a groan from the other boy. 

And then, for some odd fucking reason, Lance stops kissing Keith.

“Come back,” Keith murmurs as he reaches for Lance.

“Nope.”

“Um, why not?”

“Because _that’s_ teasing.”  Lance grins, obviously pleased with himself.

“Who do you think you are?” Keith asks, his annoyance showing.

Lance opens his mouth, ready with a what Keith assumes is probably a smartass response, but his mouth closes just as suddenly, and a blush quickly works its way up his face. 

“Lance?”

“Yes?” Lance squeaks.

“Are you okay?”

“Right as rain!”  He’s still high-pitched and obviously not okay.

Lance starts to curl in on himself, so Keith grabs his hands, gently pulls him back.  “Lance.”

Lance looks anywhere but Keith, his face still as red as before.  He doesn’t reply.

“Lance.”  Still nothing.  Keith mentally prepares himself before saying, “Lance, baby, please.  Hey.  What’s wrong?” 

Lance perks up at the pet name, seems almost like he’s pulled back to reality.  “You called me baby,” he states.

“Very observant of you,” Keith replies.  He tries to keep his annoyance out of his voice because he knows that it’s not appropriate in this situation.  Lance is obviously upset about something and yelling at him won’t make it better.  “I figured it would help calm you down, maybe bring you back down to earth.”

That affectionate expression returns to Lance’s face.  “Thanks, baby,” he replies softly.

“So, are you gonna tell me what’s bugging you?”

Lance squirms again, obviously uncomfortable.

“If you don’t want to, that’s fine.  I just figured I’d offer because it seems like it’s serious and—”

“I don’t know who I think I am,” Lance blurts, interrupting Keith.

Keith arches an eyebrow in confusion.  “What do you mean?”

“Well, um, a second ago, you asked who I thought I was and I, like always, thought of some snappy answer but then I wasn’t sure if I could say it or not.”

“What was it?”

Lance looks down, mumbles something Keith can’t hear.

“Lance, babe, you can tell me.”

“I was gonna say your boyfriend,” Lance mumbles.

Keith stiffens.  Now he understands why Lance was so nervous.  That is, in fact, a talk they have not yet had.  “Oh, you were?” he asks lightly, playfully, trying his best to get Lance to open back up.

Lance nods mutely.

“And what was wrong with that answer?”

Now it’s Lance’s turn to be surprised.  His eyebrows shoot up and his mouth falls open.  “What?”

“I asked why that was a bad answer?”

“Well, Keith, c’mon, I mean, like, _sure_ we kiss, and we say stuff, call each other names, but, like—we’re not, we haven’t—” Lance splutters. 

“We can,” Keith answers simply. 

“Yeah?” Lance asks hopefully after a beat.

“Yeah,” Keith says firmly.  He smiles and Lance relaxes.

“So, uh, how-how would you like to have me as your boyfriend?” Lance asks.

Keith’s smile grows.  “I think I’d like that a lot.”

“Sweet.”

“That’s all you have to say?”

“Well, y’know, this isn’t exactly a situation that requires words,” Lance answers playfully before capturing Keith’s lips in another wonderful kiss. 

Keith sighs into the kiss, relaxes into Lance.  He slides his hands under Lance’s shirt, loves the feel of that smooth skin under his fingers.  Lance shudders from the contact. 

Lance’s hands are tangled in Keith’s hair, softly tugging every time Keith’s mouth does something Lance likes (which is pretty often, surprising no one). 

Next thing either of them know, Lance’s shirt is off, and Keith can run his hands over the bare expanse of skin better than before.  He also trails his lips across Lance’s chest, down his stomach, across his hips.  Lance’s breath hitches and he stiffens a little, and Keith pulls back, concerned. 

“N-no, it’s okay,” Lance breathes as he stares at Keith.  “It’s okay.  Just a lot to take in at once.”  His eyes are shining with affection and something else that Keith never expected to see directed at him from Lance. 

It’s enough to bring a flush to Keith’s cheeks, enough to make him look away.

But then Lance has his hands on Keith’s face, pulls him close, presses a kiss against the tip of his nose.  “Hey.”

“Hi.”  Keith snuggles against Lance’s chest.  “Sorry.”

“Nothing to apologize for.”  Lance runs his fingers through Keith’s hair, hoping to soothe him. 

They lie there like that for a while, wrapped in each other’s arms, enjoying each other’s mere presence.  There’s something reassuring to both of them about being that close to someone else, about being able to spend time with someone who cares about you so deeply, so purely. 

After a few minutes, though, Keith fidgets, antsy.

“Everything good?”

“What?  Oh, yeah,” he replies absently. 

Lance chuckles softly, places a kiss to the top of Keith’s head.  “Want to kiss some more?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Keith says before turning and kissing Lance. 

They fall back into the rhythm of simple and easy (yet passionate) kisses.  Keith’s mouth, once again, traces patterns over Lance’s skin, can’t get enough of the taste of the other boy. 

“Y-you good there?” Lance asks shakily as Keith leaves another mark on his skin. 

“Mhm,” Keith hums as he grazes his teeth against Lance’s collarbone.

Keith finds himself traveling lower and lower again, hands itching to feel all of Lance, mouth wanting to taste. 

Lance gasps when Keith’s hands wander lower than before. 

Keith pulls back.  “Sorry, sorry, sorry, so—”

“Ju-just because I gasped doesn’t mean I didn’t like it,” Lance tells him, breathing heavily, face flushed.  “Don’t stop.”

And so, Keith doesn’t.  At least, not until after Lance has fallen apart at his fingertips. 

Keith doesn’t think he’s ever seen someone as beautiful as Lance before as he comes down from his high, chest heaving and expression full of fondness for Keith.  He pulls Keith into a sloppy kiss.  “Nice,” he murmurs before chuckling.  “Nice.”

“Glad to know you like my technique,” Keith quips. 

“Just shut up and kiss me,” Lance retorts. 

And so, Keith does.  And he loves every minute of it, of Lance.

“We’ve got school in the morning,” Lance says after a while. 

“Your point?” Keith asks him before cutting him off with another kiss. 

“I don’t know about you, but I enjoy being well rested before my classes so that I can pay attention in them and not fall asleep.”  Lance puts a hand between them, pushes Keith back just a little (but keeps Keith on top of him.  He enjoys the comforting pressure).

“Paying attention is overrated.”

“Keith, you’re a nursing major.  Don’t pull that bullshit with me.”

“Lance,” Keith whines, drawing out the a in his name.  “Kissing is better than paying attention.”  He hopes that changing his argument will help.

“While that might be true, morning you isn’t going to think that.”

“Actually, morning _you_ won’t think that,” Keith retorts.  “I’m the morning person in this relationship.”

Lance lets out what can only be described as a giggle.  “That’s true.”

Keith rolls off Lance and lands next to him.  “Hey.”

“Hi.”

“You’re my boyfriend,” Keith states simply.

“And you’re mine,” Lance replies softly.  He grins, excitement painting his face.  “You’re my _boyfriend_ ,” he sing-songs, just like a little kid.

“Oh, shove it,” Keith says, shoving Lance playfully.  He turns to Lance, curls against him.  Keith rests a hand on Lance’s chest and entwines their legs.  Lance wraps one hand around Keith, the other playing with his hair, rubbing the ends between his fingers.  “Goodnight, Lance.”

“Goodnight, Keith.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for sticking with me till the end everybody!! sorry that this chapter wasn't super long, but there wasn't really any plot left to tie up i just wanted to put in some good good smooches
> 
> anywhoo words cannot aptly describe how thankful i am to have gotten as much feedback on this fic as i have! i've truly cherished every comment (even if you just told me it was cute! that's your thoughts and i love them) and kudos and reaction and just everything :) i can't believe that i was blessed with such good readers and followers for this silly little fic of mine <3
> 
> as always, comments and kudos are my lifeblood and my tumblr is always open!


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